Sionia watched through the peephole as the princesses, Shadow, and their human companion approached the temple. She got into place, and signaled her acolytes.
The four entered the temple, and The Cryer of the Craze called out:
“Her Chicness, The High Priestess of Fashion, Judge of That Which Is Cool, Arbiter of the Trends, The One Who Makes Sure Sexy Never Leaves, Her Holiness Sionia Seghi of the Western Forest!”
From behind the curtain, the forest elf Sionia made her entrance. Her tan skin unblemished, her legs long, her waist impossibly small, her long reddish-brown hair silkier than silk, her dress stunning and even above the ankles. Sionia thought it was nice of the Royal Family to visit to pay their respects. She considered them, especially the girls, among the most fashionable. Excellent role models to help her seriously upgrade the wardrobes of the kingdom.
“All Hail the Goddess Hista, She Who Clothes US and Makes Us Look Fabulous. All bow in respect of the goddess, for we are not worthy! Oh, sorry, except for you two, princesses. The Goddess has anointed you as among the worthy!”
The temple musicians were on the opposite side of the sanctuary: three orcs with drums, an elf with a harp, an orc with a mandolin, a buggebear flutist, and a goblin with a lute. They started up a fast-paced song as Sionia entered and walked down the holy catwalk toward the visitors.
The temple attendants, two rather tall and stunningly fit orc women, indicated to Rassler that he should probably bow now. He was a bit slow, but made a deep bow after the orcs pointed the large ceremonial bronze needles at him. Needles which were as long as Rassler's forearm, and very sharp.
Neither orc made the slightest move toward Shadow, who was sniffing around at the side of the room. Sionia thought Shadow always looked great anyway.
“Welcome friends! You look wonderful! Oh, I love the dress! So Equinoxy!”
As she got to the end of the catwalk, Sionia, Myla, and Wyndy screamed happy screams and ran to each other, hugged, and made air kisses, in a repeat of the scene a few minutes prior at the SFAC booth.
“Wyndy, our dearest. I heard you looked very stylish yesterday while vanquishing our enemies, and protecting our lands from the mortal danger of the invading humans! And Myla, capturing enemies while wearing scarves is now the rage of Pelsa! We are going to make so much money! May Hista clothe you in her blessings!”
“Sionia, on behalf of the King and Queen, we thank you for keeping the people of the kingdom looking so fine! ”
“But what have we here,” Sionia said as she turned toward Rassler. “Wyndy, what a fine hunk of invader male you have brought us. And one with some style!”
“The tailors that you trained did what they could with him. They did nicely, yes. This one wasn’t invading though. He is one of the good humans,” said Wyndy.
Sionia continued to appraise Rassler, looking at him as though he were a racehorse for sale. “Hmm.. Even better. Good humans, yes. You know I am getting the sense that humans will be in fashion in the new season. We women of Pelsa thank you for sparing their lives and bringing them to us.”
“Right… but enough about humans. How are you feeling about the show tomorrow?”
“Oh, dearest, we've been practicing all day. It will be something like Lagar's Haven has not seen before!
“Not seen before? Okay, but remember my father has forbidden you to use your bardic powers to compel people to dance. He thinks the performance last year got out of hand,” said Wyndy.
Sionia honestly hadn’t thought it all that bad. She’d gotten the party going, and everybody had a great time. Garaxas lost five pounds. That orc could really get down.
“Sionia? You heard me, right? No magic compulsion to dance!”
“But, Wyndy, when the rhythm gets going, it really isn't my fault. I am just a channel of the expression of the Goddesses!”
“Sionia, you know my parents are really very tolerant, and encourage all the creatures of the kingdom to express themselves. But after the line-dancing incident last year, they both, well, especially my mother, want more decorum this year.”
“Princess Wyndy, Princess Myla, you can trust me. The performance of the Fashion Temple Musicians, will cause no disturbance. It will still be fun though!”
Sionia had something even better planned that the show last year, and she didn’t want to be expelled from this country too. Not when her holy work was going so well. She lived to see Pelsa as the best-dressed kingdom of the realm! Once Wyndy ascended to the throne, she expected whole new levels would be reached, and Pelsa’s styles would reign supreme over the world!
Sionia smiled and clasped the princesses’ hands. “But you will come to the after party here at the temple, yes? It would not be as fabulous without you! The kingdom needs you!”
“Honestly, it will probably be the highlight of the evening, other than your performance, of course. After four hours at dinner with my father’s friends, the after-party will be gods-sent.”
“Bedo can come too, right?” asked Myla. She was very fond of Bedo, but hadn’t really integrated him with her SFAC and Fashion-Hista friends. He was a wizard, and she still needed to work on socializing him.
“Certainly. An interesting project you have with that young man. He has potential. If he comes all in black again though, we’ll make him change.” Sionia considered the possibilities for a line of wizard-fashion. Something loose and comfortable, to allow spellcasting, but looking like something out of this century. Dark robes were very dawn-of-agriculture. They looked like shamans, not professional modern sorcerers. Bedo had provided great service to the musicians of Pelsa, though, helping them be louder than they ever could before.
Sionia turned back to Rassler and smiled. “But we must attend to our new human guest. Shall we do a tour of our temple?”
“I would very much be honored to have a tour of your sacred place, your holiness.”
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“And you speak Goblin with such a pleasant accent! Ah, but I really sense great possibilities for humans this season!”
“Possibilities...” Rassler started, but was interrupted by Sionia, who grabbed him by the arm, and led him deeper into the sanctuary.
“So, back in the olden days, long before Jend and his army conquered it, Lagar’s Haven was a pirate and smuggler town. It had a good harbor and the Vatharians didn’t try to come this far north, due to the orc and buggebear tribes. And then the evil wizard Lothar, of course….”
Rassler would later learn that the guidebooks describe the remodeled sanctuary of The Temple of Elemental Fashion as a “masterpiece of the Orc Deco esthetic” and “the pinnacle of interior design of the 1580’s.”
But even without a guidebook to tell him that he should be impressed, Rassler still looked impressed with the temple.
The walls consisted of alternating panels of saffron and crimson, inlaid with thin lines of bronze forming a repeating geometric representation of dresses, coats, and cloaks. Thin lines traced their way to the ceiling, where a new pattern, tracing out the spinning wheel of a loom covered the main circular dome.
The lines of bronze continued through the six long windows on the side of the sanctuary. The pattern in the window changed to depict a dancing Goddess surrounded by the wheel of the sun. From her dance the first rays of the dawn shone on the figures of flax and grazing sheep.
The lines from the ceiling and walls then combined at the end of the sanctuary, at the beginning of the catwalk, becoming a single large bronze needle, on a wall of descending shades of dark blue.
As Sionia led the group by the great bronze needle, she continued. “Those pirates only had two temples here in the town. The temple of our Sea Uncle, Neptos, for obvious reasons, and this one, to Hista. They honored her so that she would provide strong sails and warm, dry clothing. We think this temple may go back as far as two hundred years. Not much has been added to it, as it was considered secondary to The Temple of Neptos. Until recently of course.”
Myla added her own note to the tour: “It is said that Hista was one that influenced the pirates, bringing to their minds influences from other realms, on the possibilities of dress. That is why our scholars believe the pirates dressed in the bright colors and showy styles that they were famous for.”
“The gods bring ideas from other realms?” asked Rassler
As they approached a large circle carved into the stone to the right of the needle, Wyndy answered Rassler’s question, with the same tone she’d used when trying to educate Rassler earlier on the true nature of the gods. “They are the gods of all the planets, of all the realms that exist. They hear and see everything everywhere, and the parts they like, they try to spread around the other universes. It is said that they are still doing it, influencing us even today, in this our new modern kingdom!”8
Next to where Shadow was now napping, Sionia pointed at a stone circle inlay on the floor. It was big enough for a man to lay down inside the circle, and clearly very old. The edges were black, like volcanic rock, and the red inlay inside the circle seemed to spell out something in a very old language that none of them could make sense of.
“We think this circle goes back to the earliest times of the temple, and was probably used for summoning, or a focus for sorcerers and the high priests teleporting. It may be a way they had of fast travel to and from the south.”
Wyndy added, “Shadow told me that they were built by the Kat'sheth, who once ruled here.”
“What are these Kat'sheth?” Rassler asked.
“Cat demons, unusually evil, who can appear in human form. Shadow says the wolf legends tell how the Kat'sheth used to be very strong in the area, and through the northern mountains. Shadow even claims Lothar was a Kat’sheth arch-demon!”
“Cat demons of unusual evil? I don't think they exist. Your wolf is telling you stories. It sounds like just anti-feline propaganda from the canines. It was probably wizards who built the circle.”
Wyndy nodded. “Maybe wizards, yes, but we haven’t been able to get the circle to work. The magical arts of teleporting have been lost, or at least lost to us. Or, well, can your wizards do that in Vathary?”
“I’ve certainly never heard of it, princess,” said Rassler.
“Well, maybe our school will figure it out, and revive the art. It would be quite something, no?”
“You’d be able to send men, materials so quickly. Your trade and influence would grow,” said Rassler.
Sionia interrupted. “Anyway, we keep the old stone circle in case the wizard guys can get it working again, but let’s take you to the industrious part of the temple, where we create the fashion.” She ushered them through the door near the circle, into the next room.
The second room of the temple was larger and starker than the first. It was filled with looms and creatures sewing. Many were working on the scarves and shirts for SFAC, as could be seen from the logo embroidered on the clothing.
As they entered, a girl at one of the holy looms looked over. On her loom there was a very colorful pattern emerging of yellow, orange, black and green blobs and squiggles. Rassler’s eyes grew confused as he tried to make sense of it.
Sionia walked the touring group to that loom and introduced the girl. “This is Atsih, who just came by yesterday. You can see from her work though, that she is very talented. I love the pattern, don’t you!”
Wyndy and Myla looked at the cloth on the loom. Myla was clearly excited about it. “This is very good. Could we use this for scarves?”
“Certainly, my princesses.”
“Thank you, Atsih. You seem young. You’re about my age, no?”
Atsih answered back with words projected directly into their minds. I am older than time itself. I was already ancient when the first of the elvo-orcai looked up and wondered at the dawn, and danced in the celebration of the day. I helped them to conceive sewing, giving them the skill to craft clothing to protect themselves from the cold winds as they spread out over the earth.
Myla blinked and looked again at Atsih. Atsih then answered her anew. “I mean, I’m seventeen, Your Highness, and I’m just here over the Equinox while my family is in town. I like weaving. It can be very creative.” She giggled to emphasize that she was definitely a humanoid girl.
Myla started to ask another question, but it was then that the doors to the outside burst open, and a young orc entered and yelled into the room.
“Come everyone, there are these two human knights taking on our elves and orcs at the archery competition! Come fast!”
“Oh, let’s go. It will be fun, and I’ve been here with the looms too long today. I need to get out and see the festival. Especially as this dress is on point.” Sionia started toward the door, signaling the Fashion-Hista acolytes to join her.
With the distraction they forgot all about Atsih. Wyndy said “Well, I still need to take Rassler through the rest of the town, so I think we’ll skip the archery competition. I’ve met those knights already anyway. We will go by the Inappropriate Unicorn later though for human food. If you’d like some too, come by.”
“Well, I need to get back and sell scarves,” said Myla. “Scarlett doesn’t do very well selling to the public. Sometimes she gets frustrated when they take too long. Earlier today, she almost roasted a goblin.” Myla then hurried out the door and back to her booth.
“Well, I will take my leave then, as I need to see how these new human guests do against our archers. We’ll catch up later, Wyndy. See you at the Unicorn!”
With that, Sionia and three of her fashion acolytes flung their soft ivory-colored cloaks over their shoulders, preparing to leave for the archery competition. As she left, she passed Shadow, who was again sniffing around the area of the teleport portal in the main sanctuary.
“Don’t worry Shadow,” she said to him. “I’m sure you’ll catch those evil Kat’sheth someday.” She gave him a quick hug, and headed to the door. The elves believed the Kat’sheth to be just a myth, but, well, you never knew.
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8 Translator’s Note: The theory of cross-realm fashion transference that Wyndy proposes here sounds plausible to me. I mean, when you think about it, the idea that fashion designers are sent ideas by the Goddess based on what they see happening in other realms is the only sensible explanation of many fashion-trends. To the best of my knowledge, so far no academic research has been done on the topic. I suggest it as a possible topic for doctoral dissertation in either fashion design or physics.