It had been ten years as a Purist priest before Melisan had been assigned to the embassy in Aldis. It certainly was a different experience. The entire place was so different from even the Jarzoni capital of Leogarth. Everything was so green and open. Completely indefensible, of course. And impractical in the extreme. Which told you a lot about most of Aldis -- kind people, but too busy caught up in their own little world to see what lurked beyond their borders.
Melisan could offer a few theories as to why they acted this way. Perhaps because the country was so fertile, the people could afford to think of things other than eking out a living. There were sayings about idle hands and such, but it would not be politic to mention them. Especially in front of the Aldins.
Melisan had procured civilian clothing for today's excursion, since it was most definitely off the record. Dressed in a blouse and trousers, few would recognize the vata'an priest. It was amazing how one got used to uniforms -- to the point where one saw the uniform instead of the man beneath it.
There was an inn in one of the more commercial districts, called the Broken Sword Inn. Melisan entered, noting the innkeeper sitting behind the bar on one side. The common room had a number of tables pushed to one side, and a few merchants sitting by the fire. A broken sword was mounted over the mantel. Judging from the rust, it was quite an old artifact, perhaps even dating from the foundation of Aldis. "One room, please. Just for an hour."
The innkeeper smiled, "Bringing a guest here, young man? Just try not to bother the other customers."
"I'll remember that." Melisan picked up a bag, and took the key the innkeeper offered.
The room was pretty bare. A bed, a dresser, a table. Melisan closed the door and smiled -- there was a cheap metal mirror nailed to the back of the door. Checking to make sure the door was locked, the priest turned and started undoing the bindings.
This whole thing was supposed to be temporary -- Melisan knew it was forbidden, and probably incredibly stupid. After the fact, of course, a thousand other, safer ideas had occurred to the priest that would have given the same influence in the Church with less risk. But, all of those required others, men with their own motivations and desires for power. Working directly in the Church was the only way to be sure that Kern would be dealt with. Too many priests were obsessed over immoral Aldis to the west.
They were missing the whole point. Aldis may be immoral, but it was not two things -- aggressive and tolerant of sorcery. They were less of a threat than Kern. Until the Lich King's castles and fortifications were torn stone from stone, there would be no normal life, for Aldis or Jarzon.
Melisan turned to face the mirror. A vata'an woman of about twenty-five years stared back at her. She nearly dropped the loose bindings in shock, almost irrationally assuming someone had opened the locked door, and was watching her. She raised a hand to a cheek and then to the mirror. "Is this me?" she wondered. She wanted to retie the bindings and go home -- her reflection just looked wrong.
"I can't go back, can I?" she said, as she undid her blouse and retied the bindings across her chest. "The girl that lived back then is gone forever. I remain Keeper Mellisan, brother of the Church of Pure Light."
Author's Note: Melisan was an NPC in a game I was running this summer, one that delt with a plot of one of the Lich King's subordinates to take over Jarzon with the help of some of the more ambitious (and less religiously-motivated and ethical) members of the government. Pronouns are a bit tricky in Melisan's case -- biologically female, socially male, and mentaly androgyne (Melisan doesn't identify strongly as a man or a woman). I normally use male pronouns for Melisan, despite his biological sex, but that would be confusing here.