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[img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220927/23fb834f443fddf069b302a80ffae13a.png[/img]
[img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220927/713c9ea7f90a3bccf2680492bc93671a.png[/img]
[img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220928/bcf4c8fb894d886cf1f86d12d903935e.png[/img]

[color=1E90FF][b]Time[/b]: Morning[/color]
[color=1E90FF][b]Location[/b]: The Church[/color]
[color=1E90FF][b]Interactions[/b]: [/color]
[color=1E90FF][b]Mentions[/b]: [/color]
[color=1E90FF][b]Attire[/b]: [hider]
[url=https://i.postimg.cc/8z5xjhFf/b73aac48-9c15-4c53-9289-37731ac8aace.png](Placeholder until I get a better reference image)[/url]
Roughspun, blue trousers
A shoulder belt and waist belt carrying his equipment
Two swords and two pistols, one on either side
A woven, conical hat wide enough to shade his entire face (in his hands)[/hider][/color]
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It didn’t take long for Sjan-dehk and Iyen to find the temple. The radiant morning sun was still where it had been when they left the docks – lingering midway between the horizon and its zenith – and that alone was far more than what could be said for Sjan-dehk when he navigated the city on his own. 

That little fact didn’t escape Iyen’s notice – how she even found out about it was a mystery – and she used it to its fullest extent to tease Sjan-dehk. For the most part, he didn’t particularly mind. If this was all it took to get a rise out of him, the two of them wouldn’t even be friends. And besides, she deserved to have a bit of fun, and he somewhat deserved to have that fun be done at his expense. Iyen had been the one to read the map and lead the way this entire time, after all, and she had done a good job of it. Far better than what he would have done, Sjan-dehk had to admit. 

He just wished that she would stop playing jump rope with the boundary between teasing and gloating. 

[color=228B22]“This wasn’t so hard, was it?”[/color] Iyen’s grin was full of unrestrained smugness, and her eyes didn’t twinkle as much as they scintillated with wicked mischief. Loose strands of hair hung like black, wispy vines down the sides of her face, and tickled her cheeks. The corners of her lips rose even higher. [color=228B22]“Really, a Captain such as you shouldn’t have any trouble finding his way around. Or should I say, ‘charting his course’? That’s the way sea-faring provincials like you put it, isn’t it?”[/color]

Sjan-dehk grumbled beneath his breath. [color=1E90FF]“You’re just as provincial as I am, Sudhrayarn,”[/color] he shot back, but his words lacked strength. There wasn’t much for him to say, not when Iyen’s navigation had brought them here, in the midst of the crowd gathering before the temple’s doors. He pulled his hat a little lower over his eyes to shade them from the sun’s glare. [color=1E90FF]“Charting a course at sea’s completely different from finding one building among hundreds that look the damn same in a city this fucking confusing.”[/color]

Iyen giggled. [color=228B22]“Excuses, excuses,”[/color] she sang and danced a few steps ahead. When Sjan-dehk didn’t follow, and she saw how utterly unimpressed he looked, she returned to his side and gave him an affectionate pat on the shoulder. [color=228B22]“Don’t worry, Young Marcher Prince. You’re still a brave and intrepid sailor to me. One I’d follow all the way to the ends of the world.”[/color]

Despite Iyen trying to placate him as she would a child, Sjan-dehk chuckled. [color=1E90FF]“If by ‘ends of the world’, you mean the Kokinshun islands, then you’ve already done that many times.” He cast her a sideways look and a cheeky grin. “Might want to consider changing your words. Otherwise one might think you’re insincere.”[/color]

[color=228B22]“Oh, it’s the thought that counts with such things. Besides, I came all the way here with you, didn’t I?”[/color] Iyen replied and took him by the arm. [color=228B22]“Anyway, let’s hurry. We’re not going to find out what these people pray to by standing around out here!”[/color]

There wasn’t much Sjan-dehk could do apart from allowing himself to be dragged by Iyen as she barrelled through the crowd. For someone with a physique as slender as hers, she had little trouble pushing people easily twice her size aside, and each time with a friendly smile and word of excuse. Unfortunately, she said it all in Viserjantan, leaving Sjan-dehk the trouble of providing hurried translations and additional apologies to those who had the misfortune of being in her way. She only stopped and released Sjan-dehk once they were at the base of the steps leading up and into the temple itself. Dark grey stone, joined by pale mortar, towered over them. Panes of coloured glass decorated the walls, and ornately carved statues stared down imperiously from the roof’s edge.

[color=228B22]“Impressive place,”[/color] Iyen remarked.

[color=1E90FF]“That, it is,”[/color] Sjan-dehk agreed and immediately turned to look at her. [color=1E90FF]“You’re sure you won’t get the both of us kicked out dressed like that?”[/color]

Iyen clicked her tongue. [color=228B22]“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m perfectly decent.”[/color]

[color=1E90FF]“By Sudhrayarn standards, yes,”[/color] Sjan-dehk replied drily. Iyen’s clothes were still largely similar to what she had been wearing earlier, aboard Sudah, and therein laid the problem. Most of the people here – the ones he could see, at least – were dressed rather modestly. Nothing fancy or elaborate, just clothes that left far more to the imagination than what Iyen wore. Her shirt was little more than an decorated strip of cloth that was wrapped tight around her chest, leaving her shoulders and belly exposed. And while her skirt reached down to her calves, the thin fabric favoured by the Sudhrayarns were almost translucent in the radiance of the Caesonian sun. Thankfully, the pants she wore underneath still left plenty to the imagination. 

Iyen rolled her eyes. [color=228B22]“When did you become so…So fashion conscious?”[/color]

[color=1E90FF]“I’m not,”[/color] Sjan-dehk said with a shrug. [color=1E90FF]“I just don’t want this to become another Som Dran Incident. You do remember what happened then, don’t you?”[/color]

[color=228B22]“Sjan-dehk, they didn’t throw me out because of what I wore. They threw us out because someone tried to touch me and I almost gelded him.”[/color] She smirked. [color=228B22]“And you got thrown out because you just jumped in and almost turned a small fight into a full battle. Which reminds me, are you sure you want to go into a place of worship looking like you want to pick a fight with their Gods?”[/color]

[color=1E90FF]“Yes,”[/color] Sjan-dehk’s response was instantaneous. He didn’t like the idea of being disarmed, and besides, no God worth that title should be worried about one man armed with only two swords and two pistols. [color=1E90FF]“Maybe I’m the one who misremembered. Sorry. I think the fight's really what stayed in my memory. Was a good one, I think.”[/color] He gave Iyen an apologetic nod, who looked as if she wanted to say something, but settled on waving it off with a smile. Then, Sjan-dehk pulled out one of his spare shirts, which he had tucked between his shoulder-belt and his body. [color=1E90FF]“I grabbed this when I got my weapons from Sada Kurau. You might as well take it since I brought it all the way here.”[/color]

Iyen tittered and accepted the shirt. [color=228B22]“My, what a gallant Captain,”[/color] she teased. [color=228B22]“Are you that worried about me? You know as well asI do that I can take care of myself. Anyone who tries anything would have to deal with this–”[/color] she patted the curved sword and pistol sheathed and holstered on her left, then the rope coiled around her waist [color=228B22]“–and this.”[/color]

Sjan-dehk grinned. [color=1E90FF]“It’s not you who I’m concerned over. It’s whoever that offends you. Lady Adiyan would skin us both alive if we ended today with a murder, however justified it might be. I hear that that’s not great for establishing trade relations. Or relations of any kind.”[/color]

[color=228B22]“I’ve heard the same,”[/color] Iyen replied with a laugh. She threw Sjan-dehk’s shirt around her shoulders and tied the sleeves over her chest, wearing it much like a cape. [color=228B22]“Oh, by the way,”[/color] she began as they quickly went up the steps. [color=228B22]“Do you know anything about what’s happening here? I’ve heard talk that they’re going to be worshipping their king or something.”[/color]

Sjan-dehk frowned. [color=1E90FF]“No, I haven’t,”[/color] he replied truthfully. How did Iyen hear of such things, when she spent far more time away from the city than he? Sjan-dehk decided against asking. Iyen’s ways were mysterious and sometimes better left unknown. [color=1E90FF]“But that can’t be. I just saw their king a few days ago. Unless they’ve got a damn good sorcerer on their payroll using his corpse like a puppet, he was alive then and he’s likely alive now. Worshipping someone still living…”[/color] He wrinkled his nose. [color=1E90FF]“That’s just not right.”[/color]

Iyen was quiet for a moment. [color=228B22]“Do you think they’re going to sacrifice him?”[/color] She asked casually. [color=228B22]“Make him a deity by giving him a hand in ascending?”[/color]

[color=1E90FF]“Careful, your Sudhrayarn instincts are showing.”[/color]

A playful punch to his shoulder was Iyen’s immediate response. [color=228B22]“Oh, shut up,”[/color] she said. It was clear in her tone that she wasn’t offended in the least. [color=228B22]“We haven’t done that since three centuries ago. Two at least, if you want to be one of those hair-splitting scholar types.”[/color]

[color=1E90FF]“Well, I hope it’s not a sacrifice,”[/color] Sjan-dehk said flatly. [color=1E90FF]“Going to be hard to explain to Lady Adiyan that the king we want to negotiate with decided to up and become a God.”[/color]

A huge portrait of the King, mounted in an elaborate – almost overly so – altar which dominated the entire temple, was what greeted Sjan-dehk and Iyen as they stepped onto the polished marble floor. As the two of them quietly made their way to a corner far to the back, they noticed more portraits of the King hanging from the rafters. There was even a painting of his face on the floor, something which struck Sjan-dehk as a particularly confusing decision. Either the King was inviting others to walk on his face, or he was making it difficult for his own people to walk through the temple. Neither seemed befitting of anyone holding a title of that stature. A deep discomfort filled Sjan-dehk. This didn’t feel like any religious service he knew. 

Iyen felt the same. [color=228B22]“By the Shadowed Green, what’s going on here?”[/color] She asked in a hushed whisper.

Sjan-dehk shook his head. He didn’t know. But he did have a good guess. [color=1E90FF]“I think we just found ourselves a cult.”[/color]