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Mida sat back down on the platform and set the laena next to her. It glowed softly but didn't feel warm at all. She found her sandals and slipped them back on, tying the straps with care. She adjusted her clothes and hair, using a small bronze mirror on the altar for the latter. Once she was ready and her legs felt capable of taking her, she walked out the doorway and down the hall past the courtyard.

Her mother was in the main chamber of the women's wing, already done with her donation.

"How was it?" her mother asked, eyes pushed narrow by her round smiling cheeks.

"Can we do it again?" Mida asked.

Her mother laughed then caught sight of Mida's laena. "Oh, look at that!" She took the laena from Mida and examined it, handing over her own which glowed, but only faintly. "I've never had this much to take home." She looked up at Mida with a mischievous glint in her eye. "You must be hungry."

At that precise moment, Mida's stomach growled.

"Come, let's have lunch. Our first meal of the new year." She looped her free arm through Mida's and her bracelets charmed softly against her daughter's bronze belt.

She led them both through the main chamber of the women's wing and into the grand sanctuary, where laymen worshipped alone and in groups. Moans and the rhythmic slapping of flesh on flesh echoed through the domed chamber and the goddess blessed each of her worshippers in turn.

At the main door of the temple, two temple servants stepped into the doorway and blocked their exit. Their tunics were plain and belted with rope, and their hair was cropped short. One was older with a scar that cut his eyebrow in two; the other had the soft down of a beard just beginning. Mida and her mother came to a halt.

"Midmarya of House Kenar," the older one said.

"Yes?"

With a quick motion, the younger one reached out and grabbed Mida by the chin. There was something wet on his thumb and he wiped it on her before removing his hand.

"You have been anointed and will be assumed." It was still the older one speaking. "Please follow us for your cleansing."

"What? No, I didn't..." Mida trailed off. She knew that clergy members were chosen from the donors, but so few people were actually chosen. She'd never known anyone who'd been chosen. She looked down at the laena in her hands, then at the one her mother held. "Is it because of my laena?" she asked.

"The goddess chooses who she will," the servant replied. It was an old line. Then, his composure broke just a little. "You can give it to your mother. You won't need it here."

Midamarya turned to her mother and handed over the laena she held. "Mother, I..."

Her mother hugged her, the laenai in her hands clinking together behind Mida's back. "I'm so proud," she whispered into Mida's ear. Pulling back, she let her laden hands fall to her sides. "A priestess in the family!"

Mida was still unsure how to react. She'd known her future. She was going to be a merchant like her parents. She'd been studying math, for goddess' sake!

"I'll see you tonight at the Assumption," her mother said. Then she turned and left, as if having her daughter kidnapped by a theocratic government was perfectly normal. Because it was.

With no other choice, Mida turned and followed the younger temple servant into the women's wing and through a side door that opened onto a hall that ringed an inner courtyard. It was protected from the public and the sudden quiet was a relief. They passed frescoes of women bathing in pools and holding clay jugs and left the courtyard via a damp staircase cut into the rock at one corner leading down.

The air changed as they descended. It grew humid, carrying the mineral scent of heated stone and water. Somewhere ahead, she heard the faint echo of voices and the splash of something being poured.

A doorway opened onto a larger chamber lined with smooth pillars. Steam curled in pale ribbons near the ceiling. Basins of water sat on low stone stands, and beyond them, through an archway draped with clean white cloth, she glimpsed tiled floors slick with moisture and the dark mouth of a pool.

The temple servant stopped and gestured her forward.

Women moved through the space in simple linen wraps, hair pinned up or loose and damp. Some were temple servants carrying bundles of fabric or herbs. One of the servants, nothing in her hands, approached Mida. She wore the same simple tunic uniform as the male temple servants.

"May I serve the temple?" she asked.

"I've been anointed," Mida said. She wasn't sure what else to say.

"Oh." The servant smiled and took her hand. "That's wonderful. Right this way."