The crone sat on her rickety wicker throne, clacking her uncomfortably long fingernails against the book in her lap. Click, click, click.
"What am I to do with a child so weak?" Her ancient eyes drew over all of Svetlana's body. "An orphan, an unwanted child. You were left behind with your sister. You wish to venture off on your own? She's all you have and this is what you want? To leave this safe haven?" Her wrinkled chin frowned in a judgemental scowl. "Once you leave you may never return for her."
A single bead of perspiration formed on the back of Svetlana's neck, and dripped down between her shoulder blades, and soaked into her chest binding. "I know Ma'am. I know the weight of the choice I've made. I'm meant to be a wanderer for our goddess, healing the wounded."
Mother Phillipa's scowl waivered ever so slightly. "You know we only travel in groups, you cannot travel on your own. You are still a maiden. You haven't had your moon bringing ceremony yet."
"Madame, after all of my years attending in the temple and healing in our parishes I am quite capable and cunning. I wish to be a missionary for our goddess. I wish to be a conduit of good and benevolence in this world. The threat to the east beckons our aid. Soldiers die on the fields for our gods and we are the answer. We can heal them, we can help them, and we haven't send aid." Svetlana set her brows and urged her face not to show her fear, her indecision, as she faced this final trial in her abrupt campaign to leave the temple grounds. She was a coward, she knew in her gut what would happen to her poor sister Greta. She knew what happened once her moon ceremony was over and she couldn't let herself become the next offering.
The mother of the temple, the High Priestess sighed, a heavy chest sigh. "You will take exactly seven days of rations. You will go to the temple of the gods in Tremble and you will not return. You will take one weapon of the knights of scorn and you will take one amulet of protection on your way. If you fail our goddess, if you truly love your sister, you will fulfill your obligations and finish your acolytes journey through proving yourself in the world. You may never become a high priestess and you may not longer have contact with your sister of blood until her moon ceremony. Am I understood?"
"Yes, Matron, I understand" Her breath shook as she uttered the words. The time had finally come when she'd leave the temple walls and get to see the world outside the Abbey's.
The Matron sighed, and averted her eyes as she bent to pick up her needlework once more. "Leave quietly, I do not wish to explain myself more."
Svelana nodded once, then turned on her heel. She hesitated as she scanned the ornate office of the priestess once more. The cushions in the open window, the trellis adorned with ferns and honeysuckle that bloomed year round, and the pale green painted leaves along the wall corners. Her boots clacked quietly as she turned her back on all she'd ever known, and opened an account door she knew nothing of.
