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  “Oh.” Then she remained silent for a while. “The Vines wish us to lead First Quarter Twinmoons,” Avellana murmured. “Three nights from now, including tonight.” She pursed her lips. “We will have to work hard on this.” But her tone streamed determination with the lilt of challenge.

  Vinni touched the nav console. “We can go directly to the Turquoise House, where Tiana lives, and request she begins work on our ritual.”

  “Oh. You have thought on this.”

  “Yes.” He began to relax, let a side of his mouth quirk up. “We should actually keep Tiana on retainer.”

  That surprised a chuckle out of Avellana, and that he had done so warmed his blood clear through.

  “Thank you, Muin.”

  He took her hand and raised it to his lips. “You are always welcome, my own.”

  Avellana sighed. “So, duty, as always, before pleasure. We will have ice cream after our meeting with the priestess.”

  “I promise.”

  I LOVE ice cream. Rhyz licked his chops.

  “Glider, change nav to the Turquoise House.”

  I love the Turquoise House, too! Rhyz said mentally, adding a rolling purr.

  “Because you like to fight Ratkiller,” Avellana replied. “It is a tomcat territorial issue.”

  A standard male issue, Vinni thought, but didn’t say so.

  Avellana shifted in her seat. “We should not simply drop in on the priestess. That is not courteous.”

  Ratkiller won’t care, Rhyz added.

  “The priestess could be at GreatCircle Temple.”

  “I believe she is home.” Vinni had confirmed the woman’s schedule with the Turquoise House itself before he’d entered the Cathedral to see Avellana.

  “Please scry her, Muin.”

  He did so with the new in-glider scry screen. Tiana Blackthorn-Moss looked out at him from her scry panel, the background behind her the leafy sunroom she considered her office.

  “Greetyou, Vinni.”

  “Greetyou, Tiana.” He got right to the point. “I—we, Avellana and I—wish to hire you. Or we wish to put you on a retainer.”

  She nodded. “I can guess why.”

  “The ritual you and your mother wrote during the building of the Intersection of Hope’s Cathedral sparked Avellana’s personal epiphany, but I remain a devotee of the Lady and Lord. We need ceremonies that are acceptable to us both.”

  “I rather thought so,” Tiana replied.

  “My Family thinks to pressure us into leading a ritual circle for First Quarter Twinmoons in a couple of days.”

  “Three nights from now, including tonight,” Avellana corrected.

  A light gleamed in Tiana’s eyes. “I can help you with that.”

  Another woman who liked a challenge.

  “We’re on our way.”

  They pulled through the greeniron gates and into the front courtyard of the Turquoise House a few minutes later. The ride between them had been silent, but tender, their bond wide open on both sides.

  FirstLevel Priestess Tiana Blackthorn-Moss met them at the door and gestured them in. “Welcome.”

  “Welcome, T’Vine and GreatMistrys Hazel,” said the House itself.

  “Greetyou,” Avellana replied. “I am glad to finally make your acquaintance, Mugwort-Moss Residence. You are very pretty.” She called the sentient House by its official name instead of its old nickname, the Turquoise House or TQ. “I particularly like your tinting and your glow.”

  “Thank you!” The House sounded thrilled.

  “Good to be here again, TQ,” Vinni said, then stepped forward and embraced his friend’s wife. “And it’s great to see you again, Tiana. Thank you for making time for us.”

  She waved a hand. “Easily done. I’m pleased you came.” She cleared her throat. “As a priestess of the Lady and Lord, I would like to speak to Vinni alone first, Avellana.”

  “All right,” Avellana said.

  Where’s Ratkiller? Rhyz offered the priestess a grin.

  Tiana Blackthorn-Moss sighed. “In the back grassyard, I believe.”

  The tom trotted to the cross-corridor and took a right. Which let Vinni know Rhyz often visited this place.

  “I will remind Rhyz to behave himself,” Avellana said, and followed after her cat.

  Vinni wondered why she thought her Fam would listen to her.

  “I’ll do the same,” Tiana said, and Vinni felt a ripple in the atmosphere that the priestess spoke privately and telepathically to her own Fam—Felonerb Ratkiller, even less likely to listen to his FamWoman when it came to fighting.

  Avellana called, “Please let me know when you wish me to join you.”

  He got the idea that she wanted to spend more time outside on this beautiful day.

  Of course, Tiana said mentally to both him and Avellana, then led Vinni to a small four-person seating area in her office. Vinni welcomed the sound of the burbling fountain. Soothing.

  He sat first, on a twoseat where Avellana could join him, and the priestess took an opposite club chair.

  “I can give you a simple ritual celebrating First Quarter Twinmoons that will please both you and Avellana, and be easy for your Family to follow, before you leave.” She smiled. “I have one that my own Family has often used and my mother approved.”

  “Thank you. I want nothing my Family can argue about, but we also must have ceremonies that do not violate any Hopeful principles. Avellana is a new convert and I don’t want to cause her grief with those who are her spiritual guides in her religion.”

  “I understand.” She looked at him, and her tone became contemplative. “You might consider that the Chief Ministers of the Intersection of Hope are realistic enough to bend some of their rules for you, a FirstFamily GreatLord and your HeartMate.”

  Vinni blinked. “What?”

  “Which is why I wanted to speak with you alone and not you and Avellana.”

  Nine

  An interesting notion, Tiana,” Vinni said. His mind began to zoom with options and alternatives.

  “Yes, thus this meeting with you. I will also need to meet with her privately, so I can discover her understanding of her faith and ensure the rituals I create for you are comfortable for her. However, for this first instance, the ritual I did for my Family will work.”

  “Thank you.” He paused. “So the ministers might not be as strict with her and us as I’d thought.”

  Tiana raised her eyebrows. “You’re a very wealthy GreatLord with a great deal of power. More than that, you have a significant amount of a vital Flair. They will not want to alienate you.”

  He grunted. “They’ll want to keep on my good side.”

  She inclined her head. “As any person with sense would like to keep on the good side of any FirstFamily Lord or Lady.”

  “I can see that, now.”

  “So we have more flexibility with the Chief Ministers, and I’m thinking that Avellana will accept some . . . alternatives that are not as strict as what the founding Hopeful members intended. Their religion has, after all, been on this planet for over four centuries, with members living side by side with those who worship our Divine Couple.”

  He should have figured this all out before.

  “And,” Tiana pointed out, “Avellana didn’t grow up in the Hopeful religion. She probably doesn’t feel all the minor nuances of their belief system. She’s attended our rituals all of her life. Been the focus of them, too, I believe.”

  “Yes.”

  “So a bending of ours and a slight divergence from the ceremonies of hers should feel acceptable to her, not disrespectful, and”—Tiana grinned—“as a part of my service to you, I will submit my rituals to the Chief Ministers for approval, and I will defend any minor deviation. That way you and Avellana can be seen as being above any conflict.”
/>   “Excellent!” Vinni smiled back at her. “We’ll both compromise,” he said. “Which is what HighPriest T’Sandalwood and HighPriestess D’Sandalwood told me when we deliberated about this.” His smile faded. “But my Family is going to be more rigid. I believe that is now my—and Avellana’s—major consideration.”

  Tiana nodded. “Ensuring your Family accepts the rituals is a consideration of all of us: me, the HighPriest and Priestess, the Chief Ministers. We don’t want to put any pressure on this situation that will cause a Family to fragment.”

  “No.” He studied the priestess. She appeared whole, completely at peace with herself and able to project that serenity to others. He could only envy her that inner acceptance. Not only that, but she seemed also completely unafraid of what he might see in her future, and being around such people was a relief. No flinching, false smiles, and fleeing him.

  “I’m glad you understand the parameters of our problem and can take charge of it.”

  She nodded. “But if either you or Avellana has an issue with my work, you must let me know so we can all adjust.”

  “Yes.”

  “Shall I call her back in?” Tiana asked. “Though our Fams have remained courteous to each other under her supervision, I’m sure a ‘friendly’ testing of who-is-best will happen within a couple of minutes after she leaves.”

  “Ah.” He sent a telepathic broadcast. I will remind you, Rhyz, that when we leave TQ we will go to obtain ice cream . . . unless you need an animal Healer. Then ice cream will have to wait.

  After a quick laugh, Tiana chimed in. Ice cream sounds good to me, too, and I would share some with you, Felonerb.

  Not need ice cream, Felonerb shot back, but Vinni caught the tinge of a lie in the Fam’s words.

  Then Vinni commented aloud, “I do want you to understand that Avellana is my priority. If there is an item in a ritual that would be comfortable for Avellana but not my Family, we will ensure that Avellana is pleased.”

  “I understand.” Tiana paused, appearing thoughtful. “I believe I can create three rituals that should be acceptable to all parties in the next week. As for now”—she translocated a piece of papyrus that held a short ritual—“‘The Childlike Self as Embodied by the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine Sung to the First Quarter Moons.’”

  He scanned it, simple words everyone knew in a pattern everyone knew, songs his Family knew. His solo spoke of love for the Lady and Lord; Avellana sang to “free her childlike self” and referred to herself as that. Maybe some of his Family might have a problem with that, but it would be seen as being extremely picky by most. He let out a breath. “This is good.”

  “Thank you,” Tiana said.

  And he felt grateful that of her birth Family, the Mugworts, Tiana’s father had been the Celtic believer and her mother the adherent to the Hopeful religion. It matched Vinni’s and Avellana’s situation and made this demand from his Family simpler to fulfill.

  Avellana walked in, holding a dusty and leaf-bedewed Rhyz. He lay in her arms stomach up and purring outrageously. One look told Vinni the cat had succumbed to good catnip.

  Rhyz opened one eye. Greetyou, Vinni, greetyou, Priestess. He yawned. Do not put me anywhere near the fountain—

  “Where even one drop of water might fall on him,” Vinni ended for the now-sleeping cat.

  “This particular batch of catnip made him drowsy instead of hyperactive,” Avellana stated, frowning a little as she placed him on the twoseat beside Vinni. Not an optimal spot for the Fam, in Vinni’s opinion, but he said nothing.

  “Felonerb must have shared.” Tiana smiled.

  The Turquoise House spoke. “I directed the Fams to a new feed chute and gave them some special catnip.”

  TQ had drugged the Fams into insensibility.

  “How’s Felonerb?” Vinni asked.

  Tiana laughed and tapped her temple. “Sleeping the sleep of a happy cat. Thank you, Residence. A warrior denied his battle. Good thing Hazel Residence is too far away for him to want to go tonight.”

  “I do not think that Felonerb knows how to teleport to D’Hazel Residence.” Avellana rubbed her Fam’s belly, and he snuffled and rolled to his side. “And Rhyz and I have not been back so long that he is bored with the hunting on the Hazel estate and would wish to return here and test his mettle against Felonerb.”

  Vinni held out the sheet of papyrus. “Here’s an already-written ritual for First Quarter Twinmoons. Check it out.”

  “I think it should be acceptable for you, Avellana,” Tiana said smoothly. “But I do need to learn the style and wording that you prefer, so you might want to meet with me privately.”

  Avellana nodded. “All right, but I loved the ritual you made that we all took part in when we raised the shieldspells for the Intersection of Hope Cathedral.” Her gaze went to the window that looked out the side of the house. “I must admit that of the few rituals I’ve attended at the Cathedral, some appealed to me more than others.” She sent Vinni a glance and he felt her irritation at him upsurge. He’d cut her off from the Cathedral outside Druida City and its ceremonies. While he regretted it, and knew his time of keeping her safe outside the city was over, he didn’t think he would have changed his behavior in the past.

  “I like the rituals that Chief Minister Custos makes the best, and in such order I prefer Younger, Elderstone, and Chief Minister Foreman. That is to say, I like Chief Minister Foreman’s rituals the least.” She paused. “But Chief Minister Younger is no longer Younger as of today.”

  Tiana perked up. “No?”

  “No, the Chief Ministers have appointed Tena Basil to the role of the Younger, who represents the childlike self. She passed all the tests and trials and has shown herself to be a superior person, perhaps a prodigy.” A note of satisfaction infused Avellana’s voice.

  “Fascinating.”

  “Since it is official, I can tell you of the appointment. The next ritual at the Cathedral will be her investiture.”

  “Ah.” Tiana made a wiping gesture. “Setting the gossip of the spiritual community of Druida City aside, please peruse the ritual, and see how it suits. As I told Vinni, I can craft three larger rituals fairly quickly before you and I meet, which will make the process go smoother. If necessary, we can modify them. As we work together, I’ll learn what resonates the most with you.”

  Avellana’s face lit. “That sounds wonderful.” She reached over Rhyz and took Vinni’s hand, and he thanked the Lady and Lord for that natural gesture. Avellana said, “And you already know the essential Celtic Divine Couple concepts that your HighPriest and HighPriestess will allow, and will make allowances for the Vine Family. My future Family.”

  “I will try to make the change in your rituals as painless as possible for the Vine Family. Start putting in a new prayer or song, let them become accustomed to it, then add in another feature.”

  “Very good!”

  “I can also take turns with the rituals that have little sexual content between the Lady and Lord, in asking one of my elder female relatives in turn to participate as Lady to my Lord,” Vinni added.

  “Perhaps,” Tiana said, then added in her diplomatic priestess voice, “We will consider that. And, depending on how hidebound and traditional your Family is, some may like the variation of rituals.” A smile ghosted around her mouth. “And the Hopefuls have a holiday near Yule that includes gift giving, so the children of the Family will be pleased, since we do our big gift giving about a month and a half before, at Samhain New Year’s.”

  “That is correct!” Avellana blinked. “The children will have two gift-giving holidays!”

  Vinni snorted. “Not sure about that.”

  “I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

  “The Hazels are a smaller Family than the Vines.”

  “Yes.” Avellana frowned. “This seems to be a preliminary testing of my—our�
��ability to lead the Vine Family in a spiritual manner, but it will not be the last. Eleven nights from now, including tonight, is Holly Twinmoons.” The bond between them reflected her concentration. “I don’t know that I want to emphasize Holly moons, warrior moons. But moonslight . . . journeying and growing by moonslight . . . that might be something. We could consider.”

  “A journey. Hmm. Maybe we can take the Family to the Great Labyrinth, and we could all walk . . .” He shook his head. “No, we’d be better off staying in the Family grove and celebrating in a ritual circle there. The Family will be watching us.”

  “Of course.” But she slanted Tiana a glance. “We will need to modify the circle to a square in some rituals.”

  “Yes, but not, perhaps, the four great seasonal ones.”

  “No.” But Avellana’s tone was hesitant.

  He touched her chin. “We need to be absolutely in agreement and present a united front to our—the Vine Family.”

  Her lips pressed together, and she sent him a quick mental thought. We must wed soon!

  He replied telepathically, We will discuss that again later!

  Within two and a half months! she shot back.

  Vinni squeezed Avellana’s hand and changed the subject. “Tiana, as I mentioned before, we can consider keeping you on a retainer to create all our rituals in the future.”

  A grin lit up Tiana’s face, and her brows went up and down. “That is very flattering and gratifying, that I will have a good income from you.”

  “I think so,” Vinni murmured. “I thought about a sliding scale.” He flicked the papyrus Avellana read with a finger. “For something already done, and a minor ritual such as First Quarter Twinmoons, the fee should be smaller than a ritual you create especially for us. Perhaps a flat fee.” He named a figure and Tiana blinked.

  “Agreed.”

  “I will pay, too. This should not come only from Vinni and his personal gilt. I have my NobleGilt given to me for my holo painting by the Councils, gilt I inherited from my FatherDam, and my own gilt and personal investments.”