The sky above them was a dark gray verging on yellow, looming storm clouds that threatened rain. The tension weighed down upon them from above, quieting the group and the thick forest around them. The road they walked along was wide and made of paved stone, leading directly to the cliff shores of the Riversea. They were met but sharp winds, funneled towards them by the tree line, and despite the heat Delyssa shivered at yet another biting gust from the east.
It had been over a fortnight since they left Ankreot, almost fifteen days since Delyssa had her dreams visited upon. They had traveled over a hundred leagues in their slow pursuit of Vael, and in the last few days left the arid hills north of Gra'tan behind them.
This was the most foreign landscape of her journey beyond Gra'tan thus far: as they crept through the riverlands the days became humid and heavy, a different kind of heat than the one borne beneath the glaring desert sun. Here, sweating seemed to do no good against the thick air that threatened to smother them. The fabric of their clothes clung to their skin, and Delyssa found herself peeling her skirt off of her thighs so often that eventually she lifted it entirely and walked beside the cart with it wrapped up about her waist, but even the direct contact with the air did little to cool her down.
They were surrounded on all sides by a thick, teeming jungle. Delyssa was used to the sounds of the city -- the ringing of bells across the Street of Souls, the braying of mules hauling carts to the busy markets, the calls of the vendors, the goastherds, and the street urchins. Even though she lived her adult life behind the walls of the Temple of Shevlana, she was fluent in the way the city spoke.
That was not the case here. The jungle itself seemed to be a strange, temperamental beast whose moods shifted between the morning purr of rising songbirds and the howls and barks of its hidden denizens. The thick bush beside the road was always rustling with the movement of some unseen creature. A few days ago, near dusk, an enormous serpent, wider around than Delyssa was tall, slithered out across the road before them, and the pillar of its body seemed to go on forever. When at last its tail disappeared into the thicket of high ferns, there was no trace whatsoever of its passing. Since then, each snapping branch and rustling tree beyond the road caused Delyssa to jump and freeze like a startled deer.
The sky creaked and rumbled above them. It hadn't yet rained since they left Ankreot, but with each passing day it felt more and more inevitable.
"I think we're heading into the rainy season along the coast," Bryn said. "They say that once it starts raining in Dertath, it doesn't stop for months."
"Months?" Delyssa slowed, thinking. The rains in Gra'tan were infrequent and short-lived, sudden showers that pelted down for just long enough for everyone in the Temple to abandon their chores and rush out to the gardens to dance together in the downpour. Then the skies would always clear, and they would all be left glittering in the sunlight, returning to their work refreshed. She tried to imagine months of incessant rain, the pelting without the promise of the returning sunshine. It seemed frightening.
More hours passed without speaking, as each one of them focused on their own footsteps, until at last Cenhera broke the silence. "Del," she said after clearing her throat, "is your goddess one of those meddler types? No offense if she is, of course."
"A meddler? I wouldn't say so. We get omens and signs, I suppose. And, of course, Shevlana gives us her magic in return for our service, but she doesn't play an active hand in the world like some other gods. Our records say that it's been centuries since Shevlana has walked among mortals."
"I don't mean that she comes down from... wherever she is," Cenhera said, still sounding cautious. "I just wondered if Shevlana, I don't know, plays tricks on people. Changes them somehow."
"Shevlana doesn't deal in curses," Delyssa replied firmly.
"Not curses. Just tricks. Nudges, I suppose."
"I don't think so. I can't recall anything like that, but maybe in some older mythics. Why do you ask?"
"Well... it's just that ever since you joined us, we've been acting differently. Bryn's always been rowdy, but he never would have walked around with his cock out before."
Delyssa turned, and saw that the fighter was holding the front of his trousers down to just over his knees, airing his genitals in the humidity.
"Uh, I didn't have a cock before," he said in between long strides.
Cenhera blinked. "Oh, yeah. Huh, that's right. Anyway, my point is that since you joined us, it's been more fucking than ever before in my life, I think. I don't know about Bryn, but I'm doing things I never would have done with my party before you came along."
"Are you really complaining," Bryn said from behind them.
"No! It's just, I was wondering if there was anything, uh, supernatural about it."
Delyssa laughed. "Are you asking if my goddess has somehow enchanted you to be more aroused?"
Cenhera flushed, her pale face reddening. "It does sound kinda dumb when you put it like that. Earlier, when I was on watch, I cast a spell to see if there were any subtle enchantments around us, just out of curiosity."
"And?"
"Nothing except your ward, Bryn's sword, my knives, and those hoops around your tits. But my spell wouldn't have detected anything from a, uh, higher power, so to speak, so I thought I'd ask."
"Well, all I can say is that to my knowledge, Shevlana is never so direct." Delyssa glanced down at her chest. She was now fully accustomed to the light weight of the Wings of Amity around her chest. Sometimes, she forgot that they were there. "I'd still like to know what, exactly, these are enchanted to do."
"Your saint didn't elaborate?" Bryn asked.
"She was cryptic."
"Hah. Nice pun," Bryn said.
"What pun?"
"We found her body in a crypt."
"Oh."
"Never mind."
Delyssa turned back to Cenhera. "To what you were saying, I don't think anything unnatural is taking place. I can see what you mean, but this is actually the least amount of sex I've been having since I came of age," she said with a shrug. A few steps later, and she realized that the other two had stopped walking, and were staring at her.
"Are you serious?" Bryn said. "It was basically nonstop since before we even got to Ankreot."
"I lived in the temple of the Goddess of Love and Lust," Delyssa pointed out.
"I assumed that this was you cutting loose in the outside world," Cenhera protested.
"No! I used to spend my whole day in my cella, a little room where supplicants and worshipers would come in to lay with me until the Temple closed its doors at night."
"How many would you have every day?" Bryn said, his eyes wide.
"On an average day, I'd see around ten or twelve people. Mostly young men and women in the rite of emergence. On some of the holy days, where we work out in the main chamber of the temple, it might be closer to twenty or thirty, depending on how many acolytes are working that night. Otherwise, there's lots of chores to keep us busy that isn't sex."
"Thirty? In a single day?" Cenhera's mouth was open.
"Well, those are the holy days, and there's only one or two of those a year. Of course, that doesn't count when I'd lay with the other acolytes or the priestesses."
Bryn threw up his hands. "Why does anyone worship any god but yours?"
Delyssa shrugged. "I wonder if that's what Mesembre thought. But I do think that perhaps I enjoyed those pleasures more than some of the others. There are women who were initiated at the same time as me who are already on the path to being priestesses. And there's plenty of others who mostly work in the healing ward. There's quite a lot of variety within the Temple. Outside of it, I don't know. If I had found the Temple of Muridiel as a child instead of the Temple of Shevlana, I might be wondering why anyone would spend their days having sex with whomever instead of tending to the harvest." She frowned. "Hm. I don't think that's blasphemy."
Bryn scratched his chin. "You know, it's funny. A few weeks ago, and I think I'd have gotten pretty mad if someone I love just told me they'd been fucking ten to twenty other people every day for however many years. But now, I don't know. It doesn't seem like a big deal."
Delyssa walked back to the fighter and took his arm. "I think that's the first time you said you love me," she said with a smile.
Bryn straightened and blushed. "Um. Well, it's hard not to, when you're always showing off a body like this," he said, grabbing Delyssa's ass with his other hand.
"Excellent parry, warrior," Cenhera said.
They resumed walking, with Delyssa in between Bryn and Cenhera, the horse and cart picking up again behind them. As they walked, Bryn's hand stuck to her bottom, drifting down between her cheeks with each step.
"We still have a lot of ground left to cover today," she reminded him.
