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"I can talk to him if that's easier," Wen offered. "I know you have a lot going on, and maybe if I say that you sent me, he'll help?"
"Jeerad," I told her. "Cesyr is my other brother, and he's Merci's Chosen. Well, I have an initiate sister and an acolyte brother there too, but they're still students. If you just tell Jeerad that I sent you, and mention Cesyr if he's not sure, he'll believe it."
"Which means you can worry about talking to the baroness," Wen said. "Nari, it's only been a little over a month and we're already feeling the pinch. How long do you think it's going to be before Kinen and the baroness come to terms?"
"It won't be soon," Farik told her. "Kinen is making these new rules in an attempt to work around the baroness. I've also heard that his advisors aren't suffering any restrictions on their rations or budgets."
"Let's just hope they don't get hurt," I grumbled. "I also heard that Priests of the Body are being forced to tithe for the sessions they miss. What is going on in this temple? More than that, why isn't anyone complaining about it yet?"
"Because it comes down from the head of our Path," Farik explained. "Then it's filtered through different leaders. The head of Action told the head of medicine, who told the head of physicians, which is me. Now, I get to tell the students that they won't be allowed to move into graduate training, and reassign my staff. In other words, it'll be my fault in their eyes."
"And with the way the Paths are divided," I realized, "no one else realizes that it's happening across the entire temple."
"Except you," Farik agreed. "You are the only priest in this entire temple who has duties on more than one Path. However, Amerlee has been talking to a few of us. We're trying to do something about this, but without two thirds of the temple voting for a reimmersion, Kinen's position is safe."
"Then why is he so worried that I'll replace him?" I asked, struggling to hold back my frustration. "I feel like all of this is my fault because of my lace."
"Because of Zeal," Wen corrected. "Because miracles follow you around. Zeal rode you in primary. He rode your guardian before the entire temple. He rode another guardian to save you in that session. I mean, that's how I heard about it." She looked a little embarrassed, then shrugged. "People have kinda been talking about you for a while."
"And then you end up with all that lace," Farik reminded me.
"Yeah, and now Kinen wants me dead." I snapped my mouth shut, looking between them in some foolish hope that they'd missed that. "Figuratively speaking, I mean," I added, hoping that would help.
Wen just lifted her hands and backed away. "Which means you don't want to talk about it. Farik, I'll finish up with the ones on my list and then run over to Compassion tonight, if you're ok with that?"
"If they can help with anything," Farik told her, "even ingredients, because our greenhouse is starting to get sparse."
"I can only ask," she said before turning and simply walking away.
I shifted over, hoping I could do the same, but Farik grabbed my arm. "What happened? Amerlee didn't tell me there had been threats on your life, and I have a feeling she would have."
"No, it was just a bottle of what should've been wine," I told him. "A secret admirer left it, but the fluid was cloudy, almost milky, and it smelled like thimbleberries. We poured it out, and I didn't want to make a big deal of it if it was an accident."
"And if it wasn't?" he asked.
"It still looked like it had gone off," I countered. "And the girl who left it is too stupid to actually poison anyone."
"Who?!" Farik demanded, his normally easy-going nature suddenly changing.
I honestly hadn't thought too much about the tainted alcohol incident. It had failed. Part of my mind kept saying that I was overreacting, because no one would resort to murder because of my lace. We were all fine, it was stupid, so I shouldn't worry about it, right? And yet, seeing Farik's reaction, I managed to squeak out an answer.
"Ciella, the priestess with no lace. On the night of the Fresh Start, as we were leaving, the guys and I heard Kinen telling her to deal with me. Ciella's partner is Tishlie. Tishlie is Anver's ward, but he's one of the Five. He talks to Zeal as much as I do, and he said he heard them saying that Kinen had given them the leaves."
"Good, which means he doesn't know how to make the poison properly," Farik said. "Don't get me wrong, if you drank that, you would be very sick, but we could save you."
"Even without medication?" I asked.
He chuckled once. "Thankfully, poisonings aren't something I treat as often as infections, so we still have plenty of medication. But Nari, this is serious. Not just the attempt on you, but the escalation that's happening. Something is going on, and Kinen is trying to get ahead of it. The problem is that the more frantic he gets, the more he'll be willing to risk the lives of every priest in this temple."
"So why don't we just have him thrown out?" I asked. "Farik, his lace is made of tattoos! If he could force my reimmersion to remove me, then why can't the temple do the same to him?"
"Because somelikethe changes he's making," Farik admitted. "Because others don't even see it. Because the ones saying that he's treating you unfairly are all tied to you in some way. Most of all, because this financial shortage? It's the baroness withholding the tithe. Not Kinen refusing to give her the budget, but her refusing to give us money. Most people think the Ranndors are trying to keep it for themselves at our expense, and Kinen has made sure of it. The simple fact that you still have regular meetings with her has convinced quite a few that the pair of you are the ones trying to destroy the temple. Kinen is just trying to save it."
"But the reason she's withholding the tithe is because he doesn't have the financial records," I pointed out. "Farik, it's because she thinks he's padding his own pockets. I mean, did you know the man has a country home? How does a priest afford a home of any kind outside the temple?"
"The problem is that no one has time to care about that, let alone even learn about it," he told me. "Most priests are so focused on just getting through their daily tasks that they never get the chance to worry about what the temple leadership is up to, let alone anything else. Now Kinen is adding more to everyone's already long list of responsibilities, which gives them even less time to care about anything else."
"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked him. "Everyone keeps telling me to just focus on my classes, but I'm trapped right in the middle of this. In truth, I feel like thecauseof all of this mess!"
