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Elsewhere in Tharel, another one of Felicia's acquaintences was having a hard time.
In her coma-like sleep, Shadow Mistress Kaelan deSeramine, dreaming of events that happened approximately three months previous to her being struck ill. The memories are startling in their clarity, not at all hazy like most of her dreams.
In her dream she was sitting on the chaise lounge in the sanctum, the innermost chamber of the halls of Sophism, the elite force that she led in the name of the Goddess Jirah. Sidoc, her childhood friend and loyal servant, was sitting at the foot of the chaise when she came in and sat down, and smiled up at her in a disheartened fashion when she greeted him.
Kaelan was not used to being met by her primary advisor with anything less than cheerful enthusiasm, unless something heavy was on his mind. Frowning slowly, she asked, "What bothers you, Sidoc?"
Without any preamble Sidoc looked up at his Shadow Mistress with a slightly wounded expression, "The Lord of Earth punished Mistress Shanna for speaking out against him... he took from her her soul... when I objected and stood up for her, and the Temptress, I was treated the same... it was many hours until I found my soul again. The Temptress was nowhere to be seen." A frown began to spread across his face.
Kaelan sighed, "I am not surprised. I've been meditating on her absence a lot, lately, Sidoc... and I believe she's testing us." There were once times when Jirah, the Goddess of the Shadows, had frequently visited and rewarded her subjects. That time was not now. Perhaps the Shadow Temptress had her attentions elsewhere in the world.
Sounding bitter, Sidoc voiced, "I tire of these tests... if she will not guide us, who will? Have I not remained devoted to her during these last five years of her absence? Does this mean nothing?" His voice gradually crescendoed until he was speaking far too loudly for a soft conversation between him and his Mistress, "For how long must I devote myself to one who does not show care for us?"
Kaelan spoke softly, to counteract the loudness of Sidoc's voice. Tilting her head slightly to survey his eyes, she spoke, "She cares, Sidoc." The simple words were meant to be reassuring, but they only seemed to make Sidoc more angry.
"Does she?? Does she really??? Why must my devotion be questioned NOW after so many years of service!"
Kaelan smiled lightly, trying to divert the tension that was obviously building up in her friend, "I think you have it backward, Sidoc. It was our devotion that was questioned before, when she mothered us constantly. I think now she's let her children grow up, and she trusts us enough that she can focus her eyes elsewhere."
Yet, Sidoc wouldn't accept Kaelan's reassurances, which she continued to give while he questioned for the next fifteen minutes. Finally he shook his head and left to be alone, and she let him go, to go about her own errands...
... only to be informed by the twisting shadows in her chamber that Sidoc was waving his knife about his own stomach, threatening to 'prove his devotion' to the Temptress. Tracking him down, Shadow Mistress Kaelan gave him the most severe dressing down she had yet given him while he was in her service.
He could not forget that he was the servant, and the Temptress was the master, and she would not come simply because he called. She, his Mistress, would have to teach him some humility so that he would stop shaming her in front of the Temptress in this fashion.
Only a few months ago, she had told Sidoc what a selfish, insufferable child he was being. And now Kaelan was at Sidoc's mercy, in the grips of a deep sleep from which she couldn't find her way out, with Sidoc as her only guard. He was still wearing the collar Kaelan had made him put on to remind him of his place in the matriarchal society. The Gods of Tharel certainly had a sense of humor.
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