Previously...
Fruimuah turned around again and studied the Fush-urah status in the temple. It is apparent that the Fush-urah status closest to her is for the women while the bare-breasted one for the men.
***
“Sisters from southern Jub?” asked Sawart, Priestess of the Highest in Fush-urah’s temple.
Her powerful voice echoed the court as she crept in like a shadow.
Two priestesses accompanied her by sides. All had visible scars on their faces.
Gurgini and Fruimuah nodded and kept their heads down.
Sawart scanned them through and through as if they were thieves caught stealing in the temple.
“You enter the temple to offer your contribution to Fush-urah, Gurgini and Fruimuah,” she spoke clearly with an air similar to a proclamation.
Sawart approached the girls.
“It is The Council who paid for you to come here, not us. Remember this and do not utter unnecessary words to others,” warned the high priestess with a suppressed voice.
She whispered to their ears. “Even the price of your redemption is not within our control. It is The Council’s.”
Intimidated by her stern look and an unfriendly welcome, Gurgini and Fruimuah felt a sarcastic tone as she emphasised on words “The Council” as if a displeasing stench passed by her mouth.
Sawart stepped back and called out one of the priestesses beside her.
“Jeyah will be your mentor,” Sawart ordered.
Jeyah, who was standing on her right, moved forward and gently greeted the girls with a simple grin.
“Learn well the discipline of the temple and you will not be deprived of blessings from Fush-urah,” said Sawart. “I will see both of you tomorrow morning.”
Sawart went into the inner hall with the other priestess, leaving the girls with Jeyah.
“I am Jeyah. I will teach you what you must and must not do in the temple beginning today,” she said.
The girls seem tensed. Jeyah went up, smiled at them and said “It takes time to learn. Other priestesses will help you too.”
That diffused the tension on the sisters' faces.
From her appearance, one could tell Jeyah was a girl on the verge of entering adulthood.
It was a contrast between Jeyah and the other emotionless priestesses they have seen so far. She was slightly more lively and approachable in nature and only two years older than Gurgini.
“I was brought up in the temple since birth. Fush-urah is my mother, the temple is my home,” she said.
“…this is the way you should think if you have gone through whatever suffering before seeking refuge here, and you will feel better.”
“Thank you,” Gurgini spewed the first word since she stepped into the temple.
“I will show you to your room,” Jeyah said.
The sisters picked up their bags wrapped in a piece of an almost torn cloth and followed her.
To Gurgini and Fruimuah who were used to live in the congested southern suburban vicinity known for poverty in Jub, the temple was only too enormous to fit in their frame of imagination.
Priestesses walked a slow petty pace entering and exiting from one court to another, a vast difference from the world where the sisters came from.
“They will not get fresh fishes in the market with that speed,” Gurgini whispered silently to Fruimuah’s ears.
They were imitating conversations between priestesses, who suppressed their voices down in conversations, as if volume greater than that would murder the peace in the temple.
Fruimuah giggled and nudged her sister gently.
“This way,” Jeyah turned around and pointed their accommodation area in front.
Recovering from the giggles, Gurgini and Fruimuah cleared their throats and acted formal just before she looks back.
Along the corridor, they saw many little girls dressed in the priestess costume mentored by few seniors seemed to be of Jeyah’s age.
Seeing the tiny figures stretching their hands to the sky and postulate to the ground in slow motion, the girls found it interesting.
“Orphans taken in by the temple, trained to be future priestesses,” explained Jeyah after seeing their interest on scene.
That must be how Jeyah spent her childhood.
This was the first thought that came into their minds.
“You will stay here,” Jeyah pointed at the room facing an inscribed obelisk hoisted in the center of an open air cross junction with many other rooms built around it.
The girls were amazed by the obelisk, which they had never seen such tall upright statue their lives.
“A gift from Queen Shebeth - during the reign of King Heira. It is already more than two hundred years old,” Jeyah explained.
Astonished by the sculpture, Fruimuah went nearer to the obelisk.
“What does it say?” she turned around and asked Jeyah on the pictographs sculptured on the obelisk.
Jeyah stretched out her hand to Gurgini. Gurgini, surprised by her action for a second, reached for the hand. Jeyah led her to Fruimuah and the Obelisk.
“It says ‘Goddess whose abundant kindness flows from Mount Moyra and Mount Forri to the ends of Froyale, raising the people of great strength to conquer lands and waters’.”
“Fush-urah is the life-giver to us Froyaleans,” Jeyah continued.
As Khebites, Gurgini and Fruimuah had no knowledge of this life-giving goddess. In the past, Gurgini never allowed a chance for her neighbours to brag on the mighty power of the kingdom whose human capital grew like grapes in the vineyards.
But at this time, Gurgini and Fruimuah, stood in awe of the obelisk, somehow felt the truth in those words despite they did not understand what it actually meant.
“We have lots to do,” Jeyah reminded the girls. Gurgini and Fruimuah whose minds already strayed far, were alerted by her voice. Jeyah gave them another smile.
They settled down in the tiny yet comfortable room and sat down on the wooden bed.
“Get some rest and meet me at the middle court in the evening,” said Jeyah.
Gurgini and Fruimuah nodded their heads. Jeyah left them and closed the door.
Realising Jeyah had left, Fruimuah held Gurgini’s hands and said:
“Did you see scars on their faces?”
‘Yes,as if they have had cuts on their faces before,” said Gurgini.
Standing by the door and overhearing their curiosity, Jeyah could only sigh quietly.
(to be continued...)
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