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Yuri and the party finally got back into town with, thankfully, little fanfare and made their way to Selvina. Minus Althana, who instead decided to spend her time inspecting every piece of building material and try drawing up schematics and the like for the structure she planned to build. The trip to Selvina’s office took a bit longer than anticipated, even if it was only a handful of minutes.

When they got to her office, Selvina was in lime green lingerie this time around and was heavily pregnant. Yuri guessed his estimates regarding Selvina were a bit off; it looked like she was probably going pop out the twins within the next couple of weeks or so. It looked like her bust had also gone through some swelling, probably filling with milk in preparation for the babies; it wasn’t uncommon for such bodily preparations to happen so soon. The group decided collectively, without saying a thing to each other, to leave that subject alone until Selvina was the one to bring it up. Yuri had told party horror stories about what he had learned pregnant women can be like.

“It looks like your time away took a bit longer than anticipated,” said Selvina with mild amusement, “which is good; we would have run into some issues with a governmental inspector if you had been here. It was nothing to be too concerned about, they typically come by one or two times a year, and I completely lost track of the date for our most recent inspection while you were out. Also, the High Priestess has informed me that a promising priestess who seems to be a bit more in the know about the situation than we anticipated will be arriving in the next few months along with her assigned bodyguard.”

“Were any details shared with you,” inquired Yuri.

“Church policies and politics prevented such information from being relayed to me,” said Selvina with a serious tone. “The only way you’ll really find out in advance is by communing with the church on a more personal level.”

“I figured as much,” said Yuri, “personally, I’m a bit surprised by the separation of powers that seems to be going on here. Where I come from, things weren’t so clear with this sort of setting.”

“Elaborate,” said Thelsia, “I want to hear this.”

“Where I’m from, there is a period of time known as the Medieval era, sometimes referred to as the ‘Dark Ages,’ but that’s a bit of a misnomer that seems to be losing popularity in the common spheres of knowledge, it's the time period that seems to be most like what you see going around, at least from what I’ve managed to gather. During the medieval era and the early part of the time period that came after it, known as the ‘Enlightenment Era,’ the church held power in matters of state, and many high-ranking church officials also had seats in their standing government. And despite monarchs being the highest authority of their nations, members of the clergy were technically able to overrule them; there were even coronation ceremonies that involved the church in some way. The nation I grew up in came after these periods in our history, and one of its founding principles was the ‘Separation of Church and State,’ which means standing members of the church are not allowed to hold governmental offices, and the church is not allowed to influence or dictate laws and regulations regarding the government itself, they can weigh in when those laws and regulations would affect the church itself, but that’s pretty much it, but the separation of church and state also means the government is limited in how it can impact and influence religions.”

“Some nations do have their government and church a little too close together,” said Selvina, “but the nation we are on the fringes of doesn’t currently have such a relationship, but that might change when power changes hands. The way you worded things made it seem like there was a bit more you had to volunteer.”

“Some groups, commonly referred to as cults, would use this system as an excuse to basically have a tax-free commune. Last I checked, it’s still happening.”

“Well,” said Lithira, “you’ll always run into those sorts.”

“We noticed the sign while returning,” said Yuri, deciding to change the subject, “but the side with wording was facing away from us.”

“Oh,” said Selvina, “we put the name you gave us for the town to a vote by the town, after our church relayed the idea to the central church,” She gave an amused grin before continuing, “they liked the idea so much they gave their blessing in what seems to be a new record, so the town is officially now ‘Divine Delving Borough,’ and I’ve been told they are looking into giving similar naming schemes to other fringe communities and the like for our nation.”

“Which reminds me,” said Yuri, “what is this nation called? I never took the time to ask, seeing as I was basically getting reoriented until now.”

“And we all thought it was such common knowledge you would have picked up on it,” said Usagi in an endearing snarky tone, “That’s what we get making assumptions.”

“Where I come from, we have an old saying about that,” said Yuri, “Well, two, actually. You might find this first one amusing, or a little crass, ‘assumptions make an ass of you and me,’ and the other is ‘Assumptions lead to errors,’ both are mildly amusing.”

“I do not believe I am familiar with that word,” said Thelsia, “whatever magic enables you to communicate in our common tongue didn’t translate that word very well.”

“The word ass,” said Yuri, “is an olden times term for a donkey, which was a common beast of burden back before certain innovations made horsedrawn carriages basically obsolete; it’s also used as a euphemism for someone that’s making an idiot of themself or a jerk, massive jerks are also referred to as a ‘jackass,’ which is the general term for a male donkey. The word ass is also used as a reference to the buttox, often in a manner that is quite crass. And a person that is making an ass of themself is often referred to as an ‘asshole,’ I hope that covers enough bases.”

“Indeed,” said Selvina, “it cleared up some things for us.”

“And added some fun new words to our vocabularies,” said Usagi with an amused voice that still managed to keep a deadpan tone and delivery.

“Anyway,” said Selvina, “as you can see, we’ve had a few changes around here. It next to no time the twins will be here, I’ve finished making most of the adjustments to my home and work area.”

“I hope your made the appropriate babyproofing preparations,” said Yuri.

“That’s an unfamiliar term,” said Thelsia.

“Infants have a knack for going places that can cause them harm,” said Yuri, “and touching things that are potentially hazardous to their health. The term basically means you made adjustments to optimize their safety while minimizing chances of them hurting themselves without help or considerable effort. You know, sharp corners blocked off with smooth covers, safety gates near the stairs to make sure the chances of them falling down them are incredibly low, fragile items in places well out of their reach, even while being held; those sort of things.”

“I never considered anything like that,” said Selvina, “standard practice is just take newborns to the nearest temple and get blessing of protection that will basically wear off after a few years.”

“But modifying homes and places of work in preparation for the new babies seems much smarter if more labor intensive,” said Thelsia.

“Given these are wolf cubs,” said Yuri, “maybe placing items designed to deter wolves in places you want to discourage them from going could help out; infants operate primarily on instinct, so anything that would cause them to instinctually divert their direction is likely a good idea. And depending on what it is, could also be a cheaper alternative to some of the more expensive adjustments to your residences and the like.”