Priestess Odaly was having a very normal day. Her priestly duties had been performed in the morning, a small ritual and sermon on the steps of the church. A small crowd of early risers had been there and listened attentively to the short speech, then stood and received the morning blessings from her before going on their merry way. She didn’t know whether they came for the sermons or the blessing primarily, but she didn’t really care either way. The hearts of women were often led astray, it took constant reminder to try to help the people stay on track. Even if they just came for the blessing she gave out, her words would still, perhaps, be remembered during times of trial.

It was part of her duties anyway, she did not begrudge them that. It was important to get her old bones up and working in the mornings, less her joints seize up on her.

A few of the listeners had stayed behind to speak with her, some personal items a few wanted help with, a few sick and injured who were looking for cures. Some inquiries regarding local politics. All the usual stuff.

Well, perhaps not the politics. It was God’s will that women govern themselves, for better or worse. Her church would offer advice and counsel when asked, but for the most part did their best to remain out of it, only putting forth their influence to keep the various nobles and governors from stepping out of line.

Like setting up a female concubine for an underaged little lordling. The audacity was unreal, and Odaly had to step in personally to put a stop to it. She understood why of course, but there were limits on what they should do.

The Yilner house was very upset at her for that, but they had no ground to stand on should Yilner had made their intentions public, which she had to eventually threaten to get them to back off. They would get their peasant concubine soon enough, why they felt the need to protest so hard was beyond her. Perhaps they just didn’t like being told no, that sounded just about right for them.

Since then, she had seen a noticeable decrease in offerings for her parish…

Bah, politics! This was why the church tried to keep out of the way. Their mission was to help women, not control them.

Questions on politics were coming up more frequently these days, unfortunately. Trouble was brewing in the upper echelons of the city, and uncertainty was festering in its people. Olady could only smile and reassure them that the church was offering their wisdom to the rulers, seeking resolution and peace.

Not that the nobles ever listened…..

It was after the morning sermon and during her office hours where she dictated words to a young man, an acolyte of their church, who was busy writing them down, when urgent word came in from the delvers guild. They wanted her presence.

Which meant somebody was injured too badly for potions to work.

She had hurried over with a small entourage, students and assistants trailing behind her. Thes types of emergencies weren’t too common, thankfully, but were all too common enough. Every year a few people died that she simply couldn't save. Not the worst numbers for an active dungeon, but still. The church and the guild had been built very close to each other for this very reason. She rushed in expecting to see a trauma situation.

Instead, she found a face off between a guild officer and a young man with yellow hair, armed and armored to the teeth. The guild officer was red in the face with a blooming bruise along her cheek. She was quite literally spitting in rage.

The young man, for his part, just had a nasty scowl on his face and stood straight, with his arms crossed in defiance. The mark of a slave was branded on his right cheek, but the mark of freedom was on the other. Interesting, she had seen too few survive the corps. A small crowd of delvers had gathered too, spreading out as the church folk came in.

Olady spoke first, annoyed. “Officer, I was called expecting to help with injured fools from the dungeons. The only injury I see is on your face though. If there is an internal dispute, you should know better than to try and involve the church.”

“Priestess, it's not like that,” the officer whined, “this man is trying to enter the dungeon, you need to stop him!”

Olady could hardly believe her ears. “Have you lost your mind?” she snapped, “Is the church in control of the dungeon, or is your guild? Why in the blazes would you need me? Just kick him out, God knows there are more than enough of you women.”

“But… but…” the officer pined, unable to articulate the problem.

“Guild regulations permit me entrance,” the man said, sourly and loudly. “This idiot is blocking my entrance, unlawfully.”

Olady threw the man a look. “Equipment does not make the woman,” she drawled, “or in this case, the man. You need to be a mage to enter the dungeon.”

“Not true.” The man replied defiantly. “I’ve been delving for years, I’ve delved into every dungeon in Cronehill province, as part of the slave corps and as part of the imperial army. And I am fully registered as an authorized delver at the capital and here. There is no legitimate reason to bar my entrance. This oaf is just being a nuisance.”

The officer was clenching and unclenching her hands as if looking to strangle the man.

Olady looked over at the officer curiously. “Did he hit you?” She asked incredulously.

The officer didn’t respond but kept glaring daggers.

“Yes,” the man replied easily. “She tried to bar me by saying I needed to pass a combat test in order to get in. Not true, by the way. And even after I threw her around a bit, ironically, she still refused to budge.”

None of the onlookers were saying otherwise, but they certainly looked like they were enjoying the entertainment.

With a sigh, Odaly signaled her assistants, telling them to go back to the church. Her acolyte stayed with her, naturally.

She folded her arms and said to the officer, “I am not sure what you want me to do here. The church doesn’t have the authority to bar the entrance to the dungeon, even if a man is foolishly trying to get himself killed. What do you take us for?”

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“Talk to him!” the officer practically shouted. “Get him to listen to reason! Convince him. Isn’t that what you church folk are supposed to do? Maybe somebody will actually take your consul for once.”

Odaly shot the officer a glare, but the officer was too upset to care.

With another sigh, she stepped up to the man, trying to ignore everybody else in the room. The man was sporting a mean glare himself, Olady was doing her best not to take it to heart.

She tried to give a warm smile, “Hello, my name is priestess Olady, I am the head priestess in Delnin. What’s your name?”

She saw the man roll his eyes at her, but he replied none-the-less, “My name is Raksha. If you are going to try to convince me not to enter the dungeon, don’t bother. I’m going in whether you all like it or not.”

“I see.” she said simply, trying her best to be diplomatic. “Can you at least talk about it? Maybe I can help. We can grab a spot on one of the tables for more privacy, so you aren’t made into a spectacle.”

Raksha eyed the women surrounding them. “A little late for that. Look, I don’t need any help.”

“Everybody needs help,” Olady replied smoothly. She had seen this type before, arrogant and prideful. Usually she saw it in women though, talking with them was always a chore.

The man gave an exasperated sigh. “You priestesses are all the same. Fine, let’s go talk.”

With that, he turned and pushed his way through the crowd, ignoring the jeers and finding a table in the corner to sit at.

In a way, Odaly admired him, it wasn’t easy to slough off that much attention.

“You’ve talked to priestesses before?” She said, taking a seat and starting the conversation. Her young acolyte sat down next to her.

Raksha gave the boy an odd look, but let it go. “Of course, I was part of the imperial slave corps for five years, your lot was always hanging by us. I’ve been treated for injuries plenty of times by them.”

Ah, of course. That was a dumb question, Olady chastised herself for the oversight.

“You must be confident then, to want to go into the dungeon. Why do you want to go?”

“For a picnic,” the man snorted. “Why do you think? It's a dungeon, I am going in to kill monsters and get some cores.”

“All by yourself? Isn’t that a little dangerous, even for somebody like you?”

Raksha gave her an incredulous stare. “Look, don’t patronize me. I don’t plan on going any deeper than the first level, I’m not part of a party yet, and I'm not just going to join one willy nilly. Honestly, I know what I am doing. I’ve been running dungeons for ten years! Why do I have to prove myself to every ignorant twat who thinks she knows better than me?”

“They are just concerned about you.”

“No, their ego just can’t take it that a man can be fine without their ‘protection’. Do you know how many parties invited me to join them this morning already? Like I'm some little mascot to parade around. Or worse.”

Olady could imagine it.

“What exactly did you do to make the officer so irate?”

Raksha shifted in his seat. “Nothing, I just beat her at her own game and she didn’t like it.”

“There’s more to it than that, isn’t it? I’ve known her for a few years, and while she certainly has a temper, it would take more than that to set her off liek that.” Odaly paused, waiting for a response. When there was none, she added, “You humiliated her in the fight, didn’t you?”

Raksha gave an exasperated sigh, “Fine, yes, a little. I was just trying to prove that I was good enough for the dungeon. I didn’t mean to do that in front of everybody, and she took it as a personal attack.”

Odaly studied the man for a few moments. He shifted a few times in his seat. Making a decision, she lifted her hand and chanted a spell. Her hand lit up in a dim blue as she did it.

“Just a privacy spell,” she said when she saw Raksha’s alarmed look. “I’ve excluded my acolyte as well. So tell me, why do you want to go into the dungeon?”

Raksha gave her an annoyed look. “I told you. Slay some monsters, get some cores. The usual.”

“For money.” Odaly replied plainly.

“Yes, for money,” Raksha hissed. “What, are you going to say that I should just settle down and find a woman to support me?”

“Support goes both ways in a marriage,” Odaly replied, waving her hand. “Each gender brings something different and valuable to the relationship. But no, that’s not what I am saying. I understand that that path is not for everybody. No, what I mean to say is that the value of all the enchanted items you have on you could buy you a city block and live comfortably till you die. You obviously don’t need the money. So why?”

Raksha’s alarmed look returned and his face paled. He looked around nervously, but the privacy bubble was working fine. “You can tell? How?”

“It’s a unique spell I crafted myself, a long time ago,” she couldn’t help but answer with pride. “Only me and a former disciple know it, so don’t worry about being killed and robbed when you leave the city. I don’t plan on telling anybody either, or asking where on earth you got so many, but I think my point is made. You don’t have to go delving. You could sell just one and live comfortably. There is no reason to risk your life in the dungeon. Why go?”

The man gave her a conflicted look and opened his mouth a few times to respond. Eventually, he said in a resigned shrug, “It's all I know how to do, really. I was in the slave corps, and then the imperial corps. This is what I mainly did for ten years. And I am good at it too. I’ve got some thoughts as to what I want to do later, but that’s years down the road and requires a lot of coin to work. For now, I just don’t think I can be anything else.”

“You could work as a guard in the city or something?”

He shook his head. “They wouldn’t take me seriously and would be looking for other ‘benefits’ I would bring to the table. Trust me, I had enough of that in the army. So no, I won’t even bother.” he looked up at her with a scowl returned to his face. “I’m going dungeon delving” he said with finality, “Whether you or anybody else likes it or not. I earned the right, you can’t take that away from me.”

Odaly considered him for a moment. “Fine.” she said lightly. She twirled her arm and the bubble disappeared. “Let’s go then.” she said, standing up. Her acolyte startled, jumping up as well.

“What? Go where?” Raksha replied, surprised.

“To the dungeon, where else?” Odaly replied casually, already walking forward. She felt a little excited, if she was honest. She hadn’t been in a dungeon in a long time. “I assume you are prepared for just a short trip on the first level?”

Olady could hear the frown on Raksha’s face as he spoke, walking behind her, “You want to come with me? Are you even a registered delver?”

They approached the officer, who still had an angry look in her eyes. “Would you like me to fix that for you?” She said, indicating the bruise on her face.

The officer ignored that question and asked, “were you able to get him to leave?”

“Maybe” Odally replied, smiling, “I’m going to take him into the dungeon, for further convincing. Don’t worry, I’ll keep him safe, we’ll just be staying on the first level.”

The officer’s face scrunched up in confusion. “You?”

“Yes, did you forget I am an authorized delver too? I am ranked bronze, I can go grab my badge if you need it, or you can just verify with your receptionist.”

“You are supposed to be convincing him not to go in at all!” the officer grumbled. “Not leading him into it!”

“What better way, than by showing him the horrors in person?” she asked rhetorically. “Now give us an entrance slot already, I am a very busy woman.”

The officer grinded her teeth together and gave one last objection. “This is crazy, you can’t be serious.”

“Honestly, we are going in whether you like it or not. Although,” She turned and looked down at her acolyte. “We should probably leave Pinn here.”

Behind her, she heard Raksha snort in amusement.