Burglary isn't exactly honorable work, but your parents taught you a number of unusual skills. Slipping onto the docks, you opened one of Dace's storage chests but found nothing of value. Then–perhaps having developed an instinct for this sort of criminality–you noticed the odd thump-thump of wood beneath the dock. You retreated just as Dace's crew pulled several casks out from under the dock and loaded them onto the boat.

You decide not to tell everyone about your lockpicking skills and focus instead on Dace's criminal enterprise.

"My mother had me investigate Captain Dace," you say. "He was smuggling Erethonian wine up North. That's why she ran him out of town before the trolls arrived."

"Those are your Stormraiders, boy!" an Apple tribe merchant shouts at Urmish from the top of the steps, to the relieved laughter of the other supplicants. "Some nasty old smuggler with animal tattoos, and his band of bravos!"

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

You wonder if Dace identified you as the one responsible. You hope not, as rumors circulate that his banishment from Hetch made the tattooed smuggler a dangerous, desperate man.

Urmish shrinks with embarrassment and irritation, then waves you toward the pit that laborers have finally finished clearing for the new temple.

"Are you going to treat me that way when the temple is complete, DARK NUNS?" Urmish says. "Your mother may be chieftain, but she's still a foreigner. I was born here and people know me. More important, I bear an impeccable lineage."

Here it comes.

"Not merely my bloodline, either! I can trace my sign back to the beginning."

He's going to do it.

"I learned from Selt, student of Brathan, student of Casser, student of Garith, student of Kurus, student of Dadarshi, student of Farida, student of Zaises, student of Capheiri, student of Brimarkis, student of Kyrber, student of Nithias, student of Lurseh, student of Tiraph, student of Narenji the first High Priestess of Yune after the Restoration of the Temples."

He looks at you as if expecting you to be impressed with this now-familiar repetition. Out of respect for the gods, you nod reverently.

"When I'm a full priest of Yune, with my own temple, what will your mother do?" Urmish says.