Lana stood in front of the giant stone portal framing the two sets of heavy wooden doors, rethinking every decision that had led her here. There were countless stories discussing the Temple of Ilaraan, but most of them were so utterly unbelievable, they were most likely just wanton fabrications. Standing here now, Lana started considering the option that they were not.
She didn't want them to be. The Ilaraan sisters were known throughout the land as the holy priestesses possessing powers of exorcism which could combat the strongest spirits and secret rituals that would banish the darkest of demons. Many had tried to unravel their methods, discover the source of their abilities, but none had succeeded and to this day they remained a closely guarded secret. No one could copy them.
That, of course, was what had spawned all the myths. When people cannot explain something, they will try and look for the answers in their fantasies. Some revered them as blessed, the true paragons of the holy light, bestowed the power to repel evil in the name of the greater good. But most weren't as naïve in their explanations. Most stories claimed they practiced dark witchcraft disguised as miracles to gain the publicity of their patrons, or that they were simple mages whose feats were blown out of proportion. Some went even farther and said that they pact with the fiends they dispel and take the credit for banishing their own evils, or that they performed all kinds of perverse rituals or human sacrifices to gain their might. Those Lana didn't want to turn true.
It didn't help that they never let anyone witness their work or that the survivors of their exorcism often described discontinuous scenes of nudity and pleasure coupled with pain and drunken nonsense.
Lana always wanted to join their order. Ever since she herself was a subject to their healing, after a fiend had taken over her mind years ago, she craved to one day be like them. She had no memory of the incident, only dark dreams the spirit shrouded her mind with while borrowing her vacated body. No one ever spoke to her about the incident and as far as she knew, nobody ever saw the exorcism, but when all others had said her to be beyond saving, the sisters had not hesitated and saved her. No matter how others warned her about them, she would forever be grateful for that.
The one that opened the door, however, wasn't anywhere near as affable as she pictured. She looked down on her, head and a half taller than she was, her eyes hard and calculating. Long black robe covered her entire body, only a silver chain with the symbol of their order hanged above it. A black and white nun hood framed her face, what remained betraying no signs of emotion. Her stare penetrated right through Lana, making her attempt to hide her face under her short, shaggy blond hair.
"What do you want, child?" she spoke in a steady, but not irate voice.
"I..." She wanted to say she is not a child, but her reason stopped her. The sisters probably called everyone that.
"I... can I come in?"
The priestess seemed to measure her with a hint of curiosity creeping through her controlled expression. "Come in?"
"I have nowhere to go," she responded.
"Another one from the attacked village? Do you too seek to join our order, child?"
Another one? Then somebody else made it here too?
She couldn't keep the thrill from her face. Lana had no idea whether anyone else had survived the raid. For a moment, the notion of seeing a familiar face had almost made her agree on the spot.
In the end, she had managed to compose herself and replied cautiously: "Maybe. I mean, I wanted to, but..."
"Are you unsure?" the sister butted in. "There's no place for doubtfulness in our temple, child. Do not return until you make up your mind."
"No, please! I have nowhere else to go! I want to join your order! I have wanted to for years, but I never had the courage to come! Please!"
The nun stopped in the doorway and made a quizzical look, not dissimilar from jeweler appraising a stone. Whatever she saw in Lana then, it was enough for her to give in to her pleading. She stepped aside from the entrance and motioned Lana to come in and into the Temple of Ilaraan.
Her heart raced as she crossed the threshold of the massive door, almost jumping upon the loud bang when it closed behind her. It was considerably colder inside then outside, but that was probably true only in the summer heats which were burning outside. The sister beckoned her sharply and without a word led her through the silent public chapel where people would come to pray to the sisters' holy light and the deities which they worshiped. Occasionally a pilgrim in need would request a healing from the sisters to appease their soul or to relieve their sins in the confessionary. No one ever spoke of what happened during the process. No one ever seemed to remember.
They took a little door in the far corner of the chapel instead of the much more welcoming larger passage, presumably leading to the sacred areas of the temple restricted for its priestesses, and Lana found herself in a small hallway. It went on without a turn until they exited into a large, grassy courtyard in a shape of a square with green bushes and large stone statues. Statues which, as Lana noticed, depicted generously shaped women in priestesses' garbs, their impressive bosoms bared on display from their undone robes.
"Is something the matter?" the priestess asked, making Lana realize she had stopped to stare.
"What are... those?" Upon the raised eyebrow she added: "Those statues aren't something one would quite expect in a temple."
"An Ilaraan sister cannot be perplexed by something as simple as nudity," She said in a stern voice. "One's body is as natural as the light shining from the heavens or the blooming of trees in a spring. Evil takes many shapes. In order to become a priestess, you must learn to be resistant to all its temptations, even the physical, lest you will be taken by it. You must have no shame."
Her last words reverberated in Lana's head like the tolling of the bell. A lot of the stories told behind the back of the sisters claimed that they practiced perverse rituals or open sexual acts. Largely, Lana thought them to be simply a way to discourage people from worshiping them. Secretly, she had hoped some of those stories would turn out to be true. Now some of them were starting to make sense.
They continued onwards, passing a group of young sisters walking through the courtyard. There even were a few brothers among them, male inhabitants of the temple who took care of its more physically demanding tasks, though they never practiced any of the priestesses' mystic arts. They wore their plain brown robes and seemed to distance themselves from the women, walking quickly and with a gap. Lana tried paying the nuns no mind as they entered one of the buildings, when something among them caught her attention. A glimpse of ginger hair.
Was that...
She tried turning around but the priestess stopped her, holding her by the shoulder in a firm grip until the young sister got lost in the crowd. She wrenched herself free of her grasp and stared her right in the eyes.
"Why did you stop me? I just thought I saw someone I knew but I couldn't get a good look before she was gone!"
"Until you completed the initiation you are but a guest on the temple grounds. Do not stray where there's no place for strangers. I will give you a room to stay in and some food to eat while I put a word in with Mother Myraan. Until then I expect you not to wander while I am gone, if you wish to stay."
The priestess glared at Lana till she bowed her head down in acknowledgement, then continued further inside and into a small room. There wasn't much to regard except a small bed with simple, formerly white sheets, an empty cabinet and a small table with a candle. There was a small, curtained window but the light of the day was quickly receding, leaving the room gloomy. The priestess took up one of the candles from the wall in the hallway and lit up the one inside before returning it back and shutting the door behind them.
She motioned Lana to sit on the bed and stood with her hands folded, her piercing gaze not ceasing to measure her, still. It might have been a minute until she spoke.
"What is your name, girl?"
"Uhm... La... Lana. Lana Tornea," she stuttered.
