We awoke in the morning to find most of Thantos already awake and doing business among the tents and shops. Our pavilion had been taken down sometime in the night. I opened my senses to find Mara and Tess. They were very busy. After talking with my sisters, I placed in their minds the knowledge that we would not be eating here and returning home. I felt their sadness and conveyed it to the rest. As we were gathering our few belongings, the elderly cleric returned to our door. He had a roll of parchment in hand. With the same smile, he handed it to us. He simply told us to place it prominently on our residence. He gave a slight bow and left. We unrolled it and read:
By the combined authority of the Council of Faiths,
we hereby proclaim our support and endorsement
of these women,
The True Seven Sisters of the Swords.
At the bottom were signatures, seals, and stamps of more than fifty individuals. Sarah recognized a few, but none of us knew all of them. On our way back to our house, we purchased a frame and glass for it to protect it. We placed it near the front door, under the eve so it would stay our of the rain and sun. We checked the house, put our stuff away, then went out to enjoy the festivities. I guess our outfits had blinded them for we encountered many who were in the pavilion yet none of them seemed to recognize us. Only the elderly cleric, Lehand, and the pregnant families acknowledged us. Even the clerics who had drawn the swords did not give us a second look. We found it amusing. We were able to enjoy the day, trading our services for some household items, food, and some ready-made frocks to work in around the house. By sunset, we were loaded down and worn out.
At the house, we found a pile of papers under the proclamation, held with a rock someone had thought to use to keep them from flying away in the breeze. We took the papers inside. Many were thank-yous for helping in some fashion. A few were requests for aid. A handful were mean attacks on us, the swords, and the Council who supported us. We could not understand why they felt so strongly against us. We put away the thank-yous, placed the requests on the table to examine in the morning, and rolled the attacks and stowed them away to take to Lord Carmon if they continued. We all fell into exhausted slumber.
Day 43, 21st day together:
We awoke and began out day. Sarah found another stack of papers under the proclamation. Not as many as last night, but still quite a few. Again, the majority were thank-yous. About a dozen requests for aid hid one or two attacks. Sarah, Gretta, and Anna examined the requests. Alice and Callie penned responses to the thank-yous. Lisa and I examined the threats. We found two threats, one from last night and one this morning, written by the same hand. We folded them together for future comparison. The others were half-hearted threats with little conviction. My sight allowed me to see the emotional essence left on the paper of the writer. I examined everything, thank-you, request, or threat, and sorted them by intensity. Once done, we each took the most intense ones that we could do and set out to find them. Asking the paper to guide us to the writer worked best. Sarah got many families the right treatment for their illnesses. Gretta identified priceless treasures from trash. Lisa found the source of the poisoned water that was killing several families' livestock. Alice got many twisted bloodlines straightened out. Anna located lost mine entrances and outlaw stashes. Callie exposed dangerous building flaws in many buildings in and around Thantos. I helped heal some riffs due to false attitudes and hidden emotions. When out papers were gone, our spell making them crumble after finding the writer, we returned to gather the others. By the end of the day, however, we had more than we had at the start. Two more threats from the same person were found. The intensity of the requests were dropping, but the emotion from the thank-yous was bright to my sight. We all worked a standard reply to the thank-yous that filled in the appropriate reasons they were thanking us so that they were not all the same word-for-word. We made a mirror to examine the thank-yous, pick the appropriate wording, and transform the words on the page to fit. Once done, we asked the paper to return to the sender.
Days 44-70, 22nd - 48th day together:
Most of our days have been the same. Finding a stack of papers, going through them, responding to requests and thanks, seeing how many threats are by the same person. Fortunately, the numbers of threats shrank as the thanks grew. We had quite a stack from one individual. Only two others came close to the venom of that one. Some days, his was the only threat we received. Whomever it was was getting redundant. The exact same letters were written over and over. The intensity was still there, but the vocabulary was limited. Lord Carmon found the writer, who was a lone Baaloc cleric who was operating on months old instructions and only wrote exactly what he was told to write without any change. The intensity and number of requests were dropping as well. Callie was now being called before building to identify weaknesses in the place planned for construction. Sarah spend most of her time at clinics, sometimes with Lisa beside her. Alice was usually in the company of scholars, straightening out a thousand years of ancestry and heritage. Anna was with scholars as well, rewriting the erroneous history to accurately state what truly happened in an area. Gretta walked with the constables and merchants' guild, identifying fakes and priceless items. I spent a lot of time at our home. Requests to reveal true identities, emotions, and personalities were very few now. Most of my time was spent sorting through the requests and threats. That is why I was there when Major Kendar and Commander Lehand arrived. They entered and started to speak, but I stopped them. They were glowing with the emotions swirling inside them. I bade them to sit. They nearly collapsed into their chairs. I sat down with them.
"It is time, isn't it? The Baalocs have become the threat we feared and your armies are being routed at every turn."
Both men nodded in a defeated manner. Their losses plain to my sight. I called to my sisters to return home. The men were so dejected that it was hard to remember how proud they were when we first met.
"Are they still in Raval?" I asked, trying to get as much information as I could before heading into the situation.
"Mostly, yes. They have made runs into Cassabla, but retreat over the border after attacking. Maalicus is feeling out both Raval and Cassabla's forces. I am ashamed to admit we have not shown any sort of threat to their advance. What few men survive their attacks refuse to face them again. We have had nearly a platoon desert than face the Baalocs again. Several villages have surrendered to the Baalocs. The few people who have been able to escape tell horrible tales of torture and brutality. While we do not know how much is true, if even a tenth is true, we must find a way to stop them before any other villages fall to them," Lehand confessed to me.
My sisters began to arrive. I had been relaying Lehand's words to them. Some of the men's anxiety faded when they saw all seven of us still healthy and the swords still in our possession. They had no thoughts of trying to take them from us. We began packing things we would need for a long trip. Lehand and Kendar rose, telling us they would go see to our transportation.
After they left, we removed the proclamation and placed a note, saying we were needed in Raval and did not know if or when we would return. We gave our landlord three months rent, telling him that any who needed the place could live there for free for those three months. Alice went to the castle and found Tess and Mara. She asked them, if we were not back in three months, if they would collect our things from the house and store them there. They promise to do just that. We hurriedly sent the last thank-you responses and were ready when Kendar and Lehand returned with their horses and seven others. We settled our things on the saddles, mounted, and were on the road within two hours of their arrival at our home.
We reached an outpost by dark. While the room was spartan, the beds were comfortable. We commented about this resume of our journey time. We had been in Thantos for over a month. I had begun to feel stifled and I think they had, too. Even though we were heading towards danger, we were relaxed and determined to enjoy the journey, in spite of the destination.
Day 71, 49th day together:
We left as soon as there was light to see. Where the road was flat and open, the men urged us to gallop. We were into Cassabla before night even though Kendar said this was border land and switched between Cassabla and Thantos control. Again, we spent the night at an outpost. This one was a little more home-like as it was a permanent station for many of the soldiers. We walked around the lit courtyard to work out our aching backsides. We ate with the soldiers, bringing them "ordinary" news from Thantos. It never occurred to any of these who we were and why their major and an allied commander were escorting seven girls across country. We were treated kindly and slept well.
