The strange woman was on my mind as I entered the main hall of the house. “So! Did you get a token of your new faith, Young Solan?” came Standt’s booming voice from the far corner. I crossed the ornate rug, pillaged from some subjected people that covered the vast floor of the room. The images of birds, flowers, and some furry creatures that Standt had once told me were called bears.
I silently stepped forward and presented the dice to him. He picked them up in his rough, weathered hand.
He seemed to be concentrating for a few moments. He just looked intently at the dice. “Sapphire, it seems.” His composure finally collapsed. He placed his hand against the wall as he began to laugh uncontrollably. His face was split by the biggest grin I had ever seen on him. Once he had run out of breath laughing, Standt pulled himself back together in something that passed for composure. “We will just tell your father that you selected a small church. He would not react well to the sect you chose. You do understand that the Church of Life and Luck is a drug and gambling den?”
“Oh, yes.” I replied, “it was a mess of addicts. The priest even tried to extort extra money from me.”
“I hope you were careful leaving. You do realize that the altar is only stocked with wood, common stone, and cheap metal dice, right?”
“I don’t understand. Those are real sapphires. I even met a woman who showed me the clear, crystal dice she had.” I replied. I was confused. “How do you know what they have there?”
“A cousin of mine got stuck working there when he was in his ‘wild stage’. He told me all about it one evening when we were drinking. The whole place is a ripoff. And a way to lure victims for muggers.”
“I was only accosted by one person. By the way, I need a new throw-away knife. It was ‘damaged’ while I discouraged the man from robbing me.”
Chuckling again, the grizzled old warrior gave an approving look. “That was what it was given to you for. I am glad it did its job well. Should I be expecting a legal inquiry?”
“Oh, I doubt the wildlife of the area will leave enough of him to use to seek me out. I think that his peers have even taken what was left of the knife.”
“You probably could have used a projectile weapon, considering the lack of countermeasures in that area. Nobody ever gets arrested there anyway. People die there pretty frequently.”
I considered what he had said. I would have to plan better the next time I wanted to go to the temple.
Standt handed the dice back to me. “You should start learning your new faith boy. By the way, The god you have chosen is commonly called just The Lady. She is said to sometimes visit her celebrants in the form of a beautiful woman with red hair and is said to carry emerald dice.”
My mind raced. What was Standt saying?
“Have a nice evening, young Solan. Back to training and studying tomorrow. You have only a week to be ready for your move to the Cloisters.”
I next went to the house library. Looking through the extensive section about gods, I found only one volume on The Lady. I got comfortable and started to read.
As far as gods go, she was a fairly mellow one. She mainly cared for the felines of the worlds. She was responsible for carrying them from one life to another in the cycle of reincarnation. She did not even ask her worshipers to call her a god. She was quoted many times as telling worshipers to consider her a sponsor rather than a god.
Standt had been right about her presenting as a red haired woman bearing emerald dice. She was also quite playful and encouraged the faithful to take risks. Those risks would sometimes inspire her to help when things went badly.
Shape shifting was one of the powers ascribed to her as well. There were many stories of her playing tricks on nobles and kings in multiple worlds. Many times, she inspired great acts of bravery in the low born in order to spite a ruler who did not give her respect.
The dice games, from what the text said, were originally a legitimate worship of her luck aspect. It was noted that those who amused her would be given special dice when they joined her church.
At this point, I found myself drawn to look at the sapphire dice that I had been given. nobles and kings in multiple worlds. Many times, she inspired great acts of bravery in the low-born in order to spite a ruler who did not give her respect.
The dice games, from what the text said, were originally a legitimate worship of her luck aspect. It was noted that those who amused her would be given special dice when they joined her church.
At this point, I found myself drawn to look at the sapphire dice that I had been given.
Taking them out, I found them to be warmer than the inside of my pocket. I found the holes that the mysterious woman told me about. They cleverly connected two of the pips of the dice. Rolling them on a scrap of cloth so as not to damage the crisp, sharp corners of the dice, I noticed that the holes must have been bored in such a way that they did not alter the balance of the dice, so the dice were not weighted by the removal. I didn’t know how it could have been done, even by a master craftsman!
I went back to my book and continued. I had begun to like the choice I had made. That is, until I reached the part where it described how The Lady took care of those who became arrogant or too foolish. Those stories did not end well. Many of the tales ended horrifically and with brutal finality. I had never taken the stories of gods seriously before, but I began to worry that I might have to keep this book in mind, just in case.
I knew my father had no respect for any faith. His insistence on my having a faith was an empty gesture to tradition. It would look bad if I were not to be a member of some sect. I knew he would be angry that I had chosen one he would think unworthy. I did it partially to rebel against him, and partially to thumb my nose at the establishment that required such a silly detail. At least this choice would go well with my efforts to be underestimated.
The irony was not lost on me that my father was just the kind of person The Lady would most enjoy making look stupid.
Out of curiosity, I took the dice out again and examined them. I discharged some of the electricity that I had been building in my body into the dice while they sat in my hand. Other than getting warmer, I noticed no change in the little gems. Opening up my eyes to see into the ultraviolet spectrum, I saw that they were emitting swirls of light in that spectrum. On a hunch, I rolled them on the tablecloth while concentrating on rolling two ones on the dice. That was the result of the roll. I tried it another fifty times, focusing on different numbers each time. Every time they produced the numbers I focused on. Each roll dimmed the light I could see coming from them. On the fiftieth roll, the light went out. The next roll only produced a normal, random result.
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