M E R I E L
The temple was beautiful, an strange splash of color in an otherwise barren land. It had weathered the storm beyond its doors, standing strong where so much else seemed to have fallen. What had transpired could have happened centuries ago, and yet, if one didn't look too closely, stepping into the temple felt like stepping back in time. Back to before. Oh, what Meriel wouldn't give to go back to before.
She was an outlander, true enough, with no ties to Caido or its temple. But she had found calm there all the same, balancing on her knees beneath the wide cathedral ceiling, her skirts spread prettily around her. She didn't know much about religion, especially here, but she knew a great deal about praying. She knew about spending hours with her head bowed, careful to look just pious enough without appearing desperate, no matter how loudly her soul cried out for salvation. Appearances were everything, after all, and even she wasn't safe from the rumors at court.
Meriel had found a place along the edges of the room, shrouded in darkness, and had enveloped herself so deeply in prayer that she didn't hear as people came and went. She couldn't pray to the native gods--at least not by name--and so she simply offered her thoughts, her hopes, her desires, sending them all into the ether and hoping desperately that perhaps, even here, even now, she was worthy of being heard. Even in a place that seemed so empty, so godless, so desolate as this.
After a time, the woman leaned back on her heels, flattening the tops of her feet to the ground and silencing a groan as she stretched muscles that had been locked in place for what felt like hours. She climbed daintily to her feet and grimaced into the darkness around her as blood began to flow through her legs once more. When she turned, she was surprised to find that she was no longer alone. A woman about her age appeared to be praying and, rather than listen in on someone else's private affairs, Meriel tried to slip quietly to the back of the room.
The young woman had finished, though, and before Meriel made it very far, a voice rose from the silence that had fallen in the temple. "Do they listen?" She couldn't help herself; she had to know the answer, to know if her prayers were for naught here, just as they were at home. She stopped, lingering, not far from the man who had spoken, her blue eyes trained carefully on the woman. "talk"
