The High Temple -- Juditha

[Ashari]

Samheen 21 -- Morningtide

A high structure, towering over all but the royal palace, sits in the very center of the city. Made of obsidian, jade, pearl, marble and black granite, it is a building the sight of which few ever forget. Grand and ornate, impressive and expensive, it is one of Tazlure's great wonders.
The famous Black Stairs, through which run red veins of discoloured jade, lead visitors three floors into the air before delivering them at two gigantic gates. The left, large and golden, depicts Uphorun as he is creating the world; the right, a blue gemstone creation, shows Anasis as she gifts rain unto the Amon Sabhaya.

The Doors of Uphorun lead to another flight of stairs, these down into the ground. Here, back at the floor level, lies the true temple to Uphorun, illuminated by a thousand torches, and by light through especially placed windows. It is a sombre place, cheerless and solemn. A huge altar made of obsidian lies before several tapestries that show the deeds and truths of the Master of Sands.

The Doors of Anasis lead down another flight of stairs, to the temple of Anasis. Given many colours and many windows, this place if always cool and alight with fires. Many statues and murals fill the room, giving an almost crowded impression even when the temple is almost deserted. Anasis' shrine is large and shaped as though it is flowing water.

Juditha had seen the building that housed the pair of deities for her entire life. It was beyond beauty and those who visitted never forgot. Whether one took to the shrine of Uphuron and met the helpful, but always warrior-like clergy of his side of the religion, or to Anasis's water-like altar and her pleasant and graceful acolytes, it was always an experience.

Today the Simbahan (as it was called by the locals) was absolutely filled. Most of the people were injured, and there were many bodies about as well. The previous night had hosted a riot in the streets of Abu`Sahir, and blood still stained Foreigner's Court, the main road of trade. People had flocked to the temple to seek out the healers. The men who were of the city guard had gone back to the guard barracks for their healing.

Many people swarmed around the building, hoping to see their loved one hobble out, rather than see them carried out and be added to the ever-growing corpses. "Where is Hinta..." -- "Do you see Ren?" -- "Is that Yin`Bar?" The women feared for their husbands and sons, many lives had been lost.

[Juditha]

Many times had she come here in the past. Many times had she come here to kneel at her mother's side and offer up prayers in the temple of Anasis. And yet, as she came today, Juditha saw the entire imposing structure of the High Temple as if for the very first time. It was as if her eyes had been truly opened, and she noticed every sparkle of every gemstone, every dazzling fleck in the stones of the pillars. She had been called by the goddess, and she knew her life was about to change. About to change? Change it had...upon the strength of her vision, she had left the opulence of her father's house, to begin life anew.

Today there was something indeed different about the temple. There was a clamor most unseemly in a place of worship, ringing in the halls--audible even as she approached. Bewildered, the young soon-to-be priestess of Anasis wandered into the hall, which was a disorganized, teeming mass of injured and panicked humanity. She had not heard of the riots, and was equally frightened and excited. It seemed the goddess had chosen to bring her here upon a day of great import...

Scattered snatches of fevered conversations rang in her ears as she hurried toward the doors of Anasis, hoping to find someone to whom she could speak, hoping to find someone to tell of her summons....hoping also to help in any way she could.

[Ashari]

Upstairs, at the door of Anasis, the line of people continued. One of the young acolytes came toward Juditha. Her white tunic, displaying her as the lower rungs of the clergy, were completely blood stained. She wrung her hands with dismay, and bloodshot eyes looked through those of Jezira, her irises were crystaline blue and eerily off. They didn't fit her dark Amunic face.

Her expression was entirely blank as she almost fumbled past the huddled masses awaiting assistance. But then she seemed to fixate on Juditha. "Anasis has sent you. Come with me." She immediately turned around and started back down the staircase she had just come from. "Can you sew?" The girl asked as she walked onward. A braid snaked down her back reaching to her mid-back. A few long strings of white and blue were woven within the braid creating a miniature tapestry within the length of knot.

"If not, you will quickly learn. There are those who didn't need immediate attention last night, but they will need to be helped this morning otherwise they will not make it until the afternoon." The temperature was dropping as they descended the stairs into the shrine of Anasis.

They turned the corner and Juditha was faced with people laying all over the intricately tiled floor of the room she had visited to pray within for yahren. A few people rested against the altar, and others leaned their tired bodies against the impressive wall tilings that created images of Anasis and fountains and greenery. "Did you see the riot?" She stepped cautiously around the sprawled people, one of her hands slightly lifted like one does when probing in a darkened room.

[Juditha]

Juditha followed the one who had found her in silence, her mind and heart racing. Her first instinct had been to recoil; never before had she seen so much blood. The acolyte's tunic looked to be more befitting a butcher than an attendant of the temple of Anasis.

Her second reaction had been one of wonder. Wonder at how she knew that the goddess had sent her, wonder at her eyes. Juditha had seen such light-colored eyes only once before, in a slave which her father had purchased at great cost, one of the few foreigners who by one way or another had found a path to the lands of her peoples. But he had been tall, broad....and extraordinarily pale.

As she followed her guide down the staircase, Juditha found herself noting the acolyte's hair, and the threads which had been interwoven into the braid. And for a moment, her overwhelmed thoughts focused on how attractive the effect was, and wondered if she would be allowed to do the same with her hair; she thought she would like that very much. But no! She shook her head, forcing such inane thoughts from her mind. This was not the time or place for such concerns.

"No," she admitted quietly, "I cannot sew." Suddenly she was very self-conscious of that fact, but refused to say that it had been because she had been learning other, less lady-like skills, from her brother during the time her mother believed she had been practicing her needlework. But Amon had been stubborn about the fact that a lady ought to know to use her dagger "for more than just cutting thread."

"What is your name?" she asked in a small voice. "I am Juditha." She did not know why she thought to ask this, just now...but she was suddenly very frightened and confused, and beginning to be more than a little homesick. So she was hoping she could find a friend...

When they walked into the shrine proper, a small gasp of dismay escaped her lips. "Oh!.....riot?" she asked, turning to regard her companion, observing how she moved, one hand upraised.

Was she blind? But then...how?

"Is that what has done all this?" she asked.

[Ashari]

"Then I hope you are a quick learner." The girl said matter-of-factly. "I am Nu Mahom`Ud. But, Nu will be enough. You are?" Though she knew that the girl carried a mark of Anasis, her name was not a part of that. She nodded when the young woman voiced her name. "Welcome to the High Temple Juditha. I am sorry that you come under such circustances. Perhaps Anasis knew that you would be needed." She turned back around and a wounded person caught her attention with a soft sigh.

"Death comes rarely with screams of torment." Nu said over her shoulder, just giving Juditha a profile of her face as she crouched down and tended to a man who murmered something to the acolyte. "Shhh. You are well and safe. Anasis watches you and will take you to her heart." Her voice was calm and soothing and the man settled down again his eyes fluttering shut.

"More often then not it sneaks in when least expected," she said as she stood up again and motioned for another priestess. "He has passed. I've got us some more assistance." She turned to Juditha, her eerily light eyes passing right through her. "Come this way, we shall go tend to those who are left." She began walking among the crowd and found her way to a woman who's arm was torn open. "What did this?"

"A blade.." The dark haired woman murmered.

From a satchel at her side Nu produced a needled and a ball of very thin black twine. "Here." She held it out for Juditha to take and then took out another and quickly threaded the needle and knelt down. "This is going to hurt."

"When sewing a wound you want the stiches to be uniform." She said to Juditha. "Has this been cleaned yet, miss?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Watch me first." Nu made quick work of the wound, and the woman did her best to keep still. The acolyte motioned for another to come tend and bandage the wound. "Ready?" She pointed to another victim, a child. He was probably ten yahren. His leg, on the calf, was cut fairly deep. Nu then began tending to a man that was sitting next to him who had several wounds. The first of which was at his brow.

[Juditha]

Juditha followed Nu about mutely, a little lamb lost in the mass of wounded humanity. Almost overwhelmed, her mind was spinning like a top as she tried to make sense of all this.

Oh Anasis, she thought, why have you brought me here today? How can I help these people? I am no healer...

She had to fight back a rising tide of fear and sadness; not only was she seeing more blood than ever before had she seen outside of a kitchen, but now she had just seen not only her first corpse, but she had been there to witness the passing of the nameless man to the world of shades, ruled by Uphuron in all his stern radiance. She begged Anasis to watch oe'r the man's spirit, and grant it more enjoyable eternity than he had undoubtedly known while alive.

She watched interestedly as Nu tended to the wound of the woman before them, kneeling and peering up so as to get the best view; her delicate fingers played idly with the needle and twine she had been given.

But...it had all been over far too soon! Just like that, seemingly, Nu was done, and wanting her to start on her own! Anasis, help guide my hand..

She knelt at the side of the small boy, gingerly taking his ankle in her hands. "Hello," she said quietly, doing her best to keep the quiver from her voice. "My name is Juditha...what's yours?" she asked, taking up the needle. "You're awfully brave," she said, trying her best to distract the child's attention from his leg and what she was about to do to him. "Can you be brave for me for just a little while longer? I'm going to help you, but it's going to hurt a bit more."

Her heart racing, she began the first of the stitches, passing the needle through the cut flesh gingerly, carefully, as she had seen Nu sew the woman's wound together.

[Ashari]

The little boy looked up at her, he was nearly all eyes, big brown eyes, brimming with the sheen of tears that he wouldn't allow to fall. He blinked a few times to push them back and it nearly worked, but they were still so shiny. "Abu." He said and took in a deep breath. "Abu Mohamin Jintar, son of Sadur Mohamin Jintar." He sat up with more bravery and looked down at the needle she carried.

"You've never done this before." He swallowed and looked at her through his large eyes. "I can be brave." Abu looked quite adult all of a sudden. There was a mature depth to the dark pools. "Hurry, please..." Was the last thing he said before his fingers locked onto the sides of of the bench he was on and he gritted his teeth.

The needled went through the flesh with a slight pop, though not audible, but Juditha could feel it. It wasn't difficult, or tough however. Abu swallowed and sweat beaded on his brow. It didn't take long before she was done, and Abu was left with a row of irregularly spaced stiches that became more regular as they went onward. "Not too bad." He said and lifted his hand, wiping his forehead.

[Juditha]

Juditha flushed slightly at the boy's nonchalant words, suddenly feeling very embarrassed. "I hope," she said, "it does not scar too badly...but now it will heal better," she finished awkwardly.

She rocked back upon her heels, still kneeling. Her chest heaved in a sigh of relieved accomplishment. "Well, Abu....you were very brave," she smiled at him. "Thank you for your courage," she said. "You were a great help to me...your father would have been proud to see your bravery," she concluded.

Suddenly, she remembered there were others who might possibly need attention. "But now I must go...I have to offer what help I may," she said quietly, somehow sure the boy would understand. Rising slightly, her eyes swept the room, searching for Nu; she would take her guidance from her, follow her lead...

[Ashari]

"I'm sure he sees it, from the breast of Anasis where he will spend eternity until I can join him." He replied and smiled, once more with that too-adult look in his eyes, as if he had seen more than any ten yahren old should. "Thank you for your help as well, may Anasis keep your shadow safe."

One of the acolytes came over as Juditha stood, and she started applying a bandage. The acolyte was very young as well, probably why she wasn't doing stitching. She started some small talk with the boy and he was thoroughly distracted in a very short amount of time.

"Juditha." Nu was a few people away now. In the time that it had taken the newest member of the clergy to sew up one boy Nu had patched up about five wounds. Her fingers were nimble and she had slowed them to show Juditha how it was done. She had brushed a loose tendril of hair from her face and left a streak of blood across her cheek not unlike the paint of a warrior before battle. Her battle was much different than theirs, however. She was here to fix that which they had done.

"Pease help me with this one." She pointed down to a man who was ribbonned with wounds. His arms each held a few deep cuts as well as minor ones and his legs. But it was his chest which Nu worked upon where a blade had cut cleanly through him at the shoulder. "None of your insides were destroyed, we can help you." She spoke in a hushed voice to him. "His arms, Juditha, and his legs. We need to try to keep as much blood in him as we can." There were probably four wounds in total that really needed her attention. Two on one arm and one on each leg. One was on his thigh, the other his calf.

[Juditha]

Juditha smiled down at Abu, wondering greatly at the courage shown by this lad. Anasis, grant me such selfless thought, she prayed silently.

"She does," she murmured in reply, "she does....and she will watch over you, just as she guards all."

She rose quickly when Nu called for her, almost skipping to her side in her haste to catch up to her obviously more experienced companion. She had to stifle the urge to gasp when she saw the poor soul upon whom she was currently pouring out her attentions.

"I'm here....what?....oh...."

The man looked as if he had been attacked by an entire group of swordsmen, so badly wounded was he. [/i]So much blood.....

She crouched at the man's side, wondering where to start...then, common sense burst upon her. Reaching out her hand, she did her best to pull together the rent seams of the man's wounded thigh, not really knowing why she had chosen to begin there, but she somehow knew it was the most serious of the wounds she had been entrusted with.

And she began to carefully stitch together this wound, attempting to keep her work neat, but also trying to be faster than she had been before....

[Ashari]

OOC: Watch out for the close markers for italics and bolding. [ /i ] (Without the spaces)

IC:
Indeed there was so much blood, and it seemed as though it was more blood then could've come from one man. "It's not as bad as it looks.. really. You should see the other guy." He looked incredibly pale, but he attempted a smile, and it brightened his face a bit.

"Quickly.." Nu said and watched as the young woman at her side started in on the worst of the wounds. She was pleasantly surprised by that, but there are certain things that are just common sense. The new member would need to be taught about proper anatomy, but atleast she understood some things already. That would be a help.

"Oh bugger! Sweetie that hurts like nothing else!" He looked down at Juditha as she sewed up the torn pieces of flesh that were hot in her hands and slipped between her thin fingers. Speed was not being her friend as she missed the targetted spot where the needle should've gone and went too high and ended up just sort of stabbing him in the leg. "Ah. Ow. What was that for?!" He had begun shaking from the shock of the events on his body.

Nu looked down at him and the color he was. "Juditha, stop. Go help someone else." The acolyte knelt at his side. "Shhh.. it's alright." She put a hand on his stomach and the violent shivers continued.

"It's so cold..." His teeth had begun to chatter and he looked at Juditha. "Why is she leaving? She can help me! I need the help!" His eyes displayed most of the white as he stared around wildly and swallowed dry. "I.. my mother, my father. I never married. Who will take care of them?" Tears were starting to brim at his eyes, but he tried to hold them back. His voice was cracking and strained. "Don't let me.. please." His dark eyes flicked back and forth between Nu and Juditha, begging them each for help as the salty tears slipped down his cheeks wiping away the sooth and dirt with them, leaving clear tanned tracks. "Please?"

[Juditha]

Later, the thought would haunt her that she should not have tried what was beyond her. In the haste to repair the man's slashed flesh, she had done more harm then good; slick with the man's heavy crimson blood, the needle had slipped often in her fingers, and rather than ease harm, she had caused it.

So it was with good reason that Nu was sending her from the scene; but that changed not the sudden shame with which she heard the words. Rocking back on her heels, she felt the heat rising in her cheeks. Numbly, she drew a hand across her brow to wipe away the nervous sweat that had beaded there, but succeeded only in daubing her face with blood--she had forgotten it was coloring her hands.

"I....I'm sorry," Juditha said quietly, the words hurrying out of her. "I didn't mean...."

And then the man began to speak, in a rush of bewildered words; was he dying? In her short life she had never been touched by its end, until today. She did not know what to do. Suddenly, for no good reason, she felt tears begin to well in her eyes as this man, who minutes before had been confident enough to joke with her, in her feeble attempts to help him, began to cry.

She reached out and grasped his hand. It was rough and calloused, and swallowed up her small one. It was also very cold.

"You will care for them," she said brokenly, her own tears beginning to slide down her cheeks. "Anasis will see to that."

Her dark eyes flicked up to Nu, meeting hers. "Please," she whispered. "Let me stay..."

[Ashari]

Nu looked up at Juditha and shook her head. "You did nothing wrong." As the newest acolyte took hold of the man's hand, he held onto her for dear life, almost crushing her dainty bones with his workman's hands. "Are you sure?" she asked. "You can do nothing for him now but pray and keep his company." Nu looked over her shoulder. One of the girls was calling to her for aid. "Stay." She smiled. "She will keep you safe," she said looking at the man. "May Anasis guide you to the light of her heart." With that and a bow the bloodied woman left them to do more for people who could be saved. She had given the man up to the heavens.

"Why did she leave?" He looked up into Juditha's watering eyes. "Oh, sweetie, don't cry for me." He attempted a smile, it was weak, but it brightened his expression beyond words. Perhaps under different circumstances, with more blood in him, he was a handsome man. "My parents... they are going to be so broken hearted. I was there only son." He began to already speak of himself in past tense. "I should've stayed out of the fighting... I knew I should've stayed out of it." He was still shivering and his teeth chattered through his words. "Tell me about you."