Hylti writes home. At least, to the only place she calls home except the home she’s made for herself. Dear Doctor Cora, I’m writing letters all the time to all the people in our little group of envoys… And I should write a letter to my Mother. But last time…

The next morning, Arni and I decided to take the day off. Just like that, but Doctor Prithi agreed, and we decided to take Dog and Donkey, and revisit our special spot near the leper village. The weather was already changing, not into autumn exactly, but the kind of almost…

Three Hills is really close to the leper village, and I know we could have tried to contact Ruzyn, or Aine from the bathhouse, or even Raisse with semsin. But I felt kind of apprehensive, and I thought, well, let’s see. If some disaster has happened, any of them would…

Dancing for the Gods… I think I must have missed that, since leaving School, because it went deep, when Prithi and I danced together. It’s more than dancing or praying taken apart, or even added up, it’s unreserved surrender — if surrender is the right word. Maybe not! Because the…

I’m good at this. I am good at this! And I don’t mean nursing and doctoring… Though I’m not too shabby at those, too. No! What I find I’m surprisingly good at is organizing stuff. Within an hour of entering the Leper Village, I’d had all of us squared away…

“Sacrilege! How dare you roast a rabbit over the Sacred Fire!” We’d found our little Temple again, the three of us, and the fire was still going merrily. I was a journeyman, tomorrow we’d be in Valdis, and we’d be able to foist off the problem of the Leper Village…

Priestess Mialle had told us how to find the leper village; it’s only an hour or two, three from Three Hills, on foot. We packed Donkey, fetched Dog, asked Aine and Lyse to take care of our house and our livestock, and left early in the morning. I don’t know…

Whew, what a night! It’s Fair, of course, and if one lives in Gropecunt Row, it’ll be noisy. That was fine, and besides, once Arni and I had gone to bed, we were making noise, too. But just when we had become thoroughly tangled up, we heard shouting on the…

It was early afternoon when we arrived in Three Hills. To get into the town was harder than I’d thought: someone stopped us, and took us into a little guard house. She was a big woman, strong, with the looks of a veteran soldier. She was also in our Guild,…

The map is absolutely empty. Blank. If the world is supposed to reflect the map, there should be nothing here. No rivers, brooks, creeks or streams. No copses, forests, fields, heaths or swamps. No hills or vales. No farms, hamlets, villages or towns. If, on the other hand, the map…