Talibah - The Egyptian
Chapter 9 - Page 1
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The stone walls of the Greathouse of Gwydion stood firm over the landscape as a tall woman with long dark auburn hair displaying only a wisp or two of gray, gazed with deep green eyes along the gray stones in meditative study. She stood by a window that lit the room in the apartments she stayed in with a fine sheen of mellow light. Dawn was filtering through the skies; the soft oranges and reds seemed to blend into the colors of the large, open room. Her apartments were generous for they befitted her status as sister to the Ricon and a great priestess to her people. Though not a Bard, Healer or Wisewoman, she, too, served the Goddess in some long held tradition of the area she had grown up in. She had been well trained by others before her and held the wisdom of that training in carefully skilled hands.

Her apartments were alive with masks and polished copper mirrors, rugs and pillows with low tables and no chairs. Everything seemed to be created in earth tones, some muted, some bold; but all distinctly part of the Earth and Her richness. Incense quietly burned, herbs that also conveyed a moist, fertile fragrance of the forest and the wild. Allowing no Court servant to attend her, one of her better students kept the apartments and stayed with her in her room. A young woman of thirteen summers, the student was thrilled to have been chosen to go with her Mentor to stay at Gwydion's Greathouse for a season or so. Having two large bedrooms and a small inner sitting room as was per usual for anyone of estate unless need dictated more; the other bedroom was taken by the best student of this venerable Priestess, a young man of around fifteen who also helped keep the rooms and attend his Mentor. She had brought both students purposely to her brother's house that year, traveling from her home on the West coast off the Sea in Gwenydd. She had felt it time for both to experience other people, other Courts, but especially the boy. He had been specially trained and she seemed to wish a certain acknowledgement for his training.

“Arionrhod.” She heard her name noiselessly spoken in the still morning light like the glitter of a near hidden flame. The young man had stepped carefully from his room, blinking in the light in the first throes of wakefulness. Dark hair dispersed itself about his face in semi-tangle, his light brown eyes still blinking in a pleasant face as his body sought a certain control in a still fairly gangly form. He wore earth-toned clothes, as did his Teacher, almost blending into the room about them as he approached.

“Madrod.” She answered, “You are up early... perhaps you would join me in a morning chant and meditation.”

“Teacher...” He said, watching her carefully, “I have had strange dreams... I dreamt a man was coming; strong and dark and purposeful... and he knew my name... And, yet, did not... That somehow I ought know him... But, I do not.”

Frowning at his words, Arionrhod looked into his face, looking for some sign of his dream's meaning in his countenance, but remaining unsure. Coming into the main room away from the window, Arionrhod bade they both sit on some of the pillows, the illumination in the room slowly beginning to brighten in a warm, soft glow like a lover's tender, yet fervent touch as they both placed themselves comfortably around one of the circular tables carved with oak leaves all about it, a small thurble burning incense in its center. Facing each other on the pillows, the table small enough to reach across, Arionrhod took both Madrod's hands in her own, “Close your eyes.” she said lowly, deeply, “Open your thoughts... Perhaps there is an answer there.”

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