The figure on the fountain was wobbling as it stretched upward, and a tail poked out from the bottom of the robe, but it was getting closer.
Amma took the offered cup and plastered on an even wider smile. “So, a priestess, huh? That’s interesting.”
“I was raised in this temple when my parents died. Isldrah called me into her service shortly after.” Diana’s hands came around Amma’s and eased the cup upward.
“Funny how that happens,” Amma said, watching the water ascend and then flicking her gaze to the figure on the fountain. How they were lucky enough for no one else to notice the little, stacked idiots, she didn’t know, but all three sets of arms were sticking out of the robes now, gripping and reaching and looking like they would topple at any minute.
The cup had reached her mouth, and Amma tipped it toward her lips though she held them tightly together. Diana was urging her on, grinning hollowly, tall enough to look down and possibly see she was only miming taking a drink. The priestess’s eyes narrowed as the cold liquid splashed against Amma’s face.
There was a screech, and Diana turned, eyeing the imps as they burst forth from the robe. From the top of the stack, Quaz wasted no time, pouncing off of Kaz’s shoulders and knocking the other two to the ground. He grabbed the hovering bird as he flew and sailed over the fountain in an arc before plummeting, wings working but doing nothing to stop his fall.
Diana sucked in a sharp breath, lifting a hand that glowed with a brilliantly golden light, but it was too late. Quaz landed, and the relic shattered beneath him, shards and arcana in every color spilling out in the moonlight.
A pulse rolled over the courtyard’s grass followed by a fluttering of wings, sleeping birds woken and scattering, crying out cacophonously. Nausea roiled in Amma’s stomach, and Diana fell right to her knees. There was a seeping from the flora, color and life leeching away, and a chill settled down over everything like the first winter wind sweeping over a plain.
Amma dropped the cup and knelt beside Diana. The woman had a hold of her head, groaning, retching, tears streaming down her face, and for a moment Amma worried this had all been a terrible mistake. If Amma’s assumptions were right, Damien’s mother had been there for over twenty years, toiling under some false belief that had just been shattered in one go, and if thewoman’s mind weren’t permanently altered already, suddenly shucking it into the present would certainly do.
But then Diana’s head popped up, and she gasped.
Amma sat very still in the quiet that followed, watching Diana’s eyes widen as they stared blankly forward. Then slowly, her hands came to her face and pressed into her cheeks. “Oh, I fucked up.”
Well, that was an understatement, but perhaps it held more weight coming from a priestess.
“My little boy,” she said so quietly it was nearly inaudible, then swiftly got to her feet. When Diana stumbled, Amma caught her, and the woman looked at her like she’d appeared out of nowhere. “You,” she said sharply, “you tried to help him.”
“Yeah, um, we went over this, but—”
“And I could have killed him!” She bent and grabbed Amma’s things from the ground and thrust them at her. “Why did you let me do that?”
Amma’s mouth fell open as the woman began to stomp away, then she blinked and caught up. “Excuse me, but Itried. All of your holy friends made it pretty difficult.”
Diana huffed, gesturing to the pair of priestesses in the other courtyard who had fallen to the ground, one sobbing uncontrollably, the other looking like her mind might have melted as she stared up at the moons. “Oh, I know, I know, I just can’t believe I’ve been so foolish and for so long!”
Amma struggled to belt her hip pouch as she followed Diana back into the temple. It wasn’t exactly where she wanted to go, but the woman seemed to be on a mission. “Have you been here Damien’s whole life?”
“I guess so, though it barely feels like it’s been any time at all.” There was a small effigy of Isldrah in the hall, and Diana threw her hands out at the thing as they passed. “I can’t believe you let this happen!”
Amma made a weak, apologetic gesture to the statue then began working on her thigh holster as she hopped behind Diana into one of the smaller bed chambers.
“As soon as I see him, I am going to throttle him,” Diana was growling as she stuffed things into a bag.
“Damien?” Amma straightened, hand on her dagger.
“No, Zagadoth!” She pulled the draw tight on her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “He just left me here as if I ever would have actually—Kaz?”
Amma glanced down to see all three imps huddled behind her in the doorway to the chamber. Kaz was just peeking out from behind Amma’s legs, and his eyes went wide when the woman acknowledged him. “Remember what I said,” Amma hissed, but the imp was already shooting toward the woman.
Amma tried to stop his attack, but Kaz was too fast, leaping into her outstretched arms. Squeezing him tight, Diana planted a kiss on the top of his head. “You terrible little beast, I am so glad to see you.”
Kaz sniffled under her embrace, and when he was released, he was beaming up at the two of them like he’d been dunked into the fountain himself. Amma held her hands out as if in disbelief at what she was seeing. “I thought you hated human women?”
The imp just shrugged.
Diana stepped up onto the cot in the room and then reached atop the wardrobe at its side. “There you are,” she sighed and pulled down something long and thin that she held in both hands with a reverence. Tugging on its end, she revealed a few inches of metal that shimmered in the slight light, and then quickly resheathed the blade.
“You have a sword?” Amma gawked.
“I’m a holy warrior of Isldrah—of course I have a sword. Don’t you?”
