The day was here. The day that the cult infiltration mission would start.

“I thought you were all about meditation nowadays,” Enusat said.

“Yeah, but….” Xerxes hesitated dramatically as he pulled on his clothes. “Well… there’s something else I need to do.”

“Oh really,” Kashtiliash said. “Spill.”

“It’s personal.”

Knowing that refusing to give information would make them pry for more details, he had put a lot of thought into a story that he hoped would sate their curiosity, although it was only moments ago that he had finalized all the details in his mind.

“It’s a girl, isn’t it?” Jad said.

“Must be,” Enusat added. “But not the redhead, otherwise ‘e’d be floating on tippy toes.”

Xerxes threw one of his old traveling cloaks over his shoulders and shoved his wide-brimmed hat down over his head. “It’s not a girl. If it was, you think I’d be wearing this junk?”

“Good point,” Kashtiliash said.

“Okay, if it’s not a girl, then what is it?” Jad said. “What could possibly warrant you ditching your best buds on our only full day of rest?”

Slumping his shoulders, Xerxes said, “It’s an… anniversary. A death anniversary.”

His friends went still.

“Back home, I’d go with my family to the graveyard to clean the tomb and whatnot. Since I can’t do that, I want to at least pay my respects and offer some prayers at the temple.”

“Temple?” Kashtiliash said.

“There’s a temple on campus,” Jad said carefully.

“Not the kind of temple I need to go to.” His friends sat there as he stepped over and put his hand on the door. “The one I want to visit is to the south of campus.”

“What’s ‘e talking about?” Enusat said.

Kashtiliash grunted. “Oh.”

It took Jad a moment later to catch up. “Oh. Ohhh. You’re a Monadite.”

“A what?” Enusat asked.

“We don’t call ourselves that,” Xerxes said. “And, to be honest… I’m in the One Faith because my family raised me that way. I’m not really sure what I believe. But if I’m going to pay respects to my dead grandparents, I need to go where they’d want me to go.”

“Makes sense,” Kashtiliash said. “You got my support.”

“Thanks, Kash.”

“One Faith?” Enusat said. “I’m totally lost ‘ere. What the—”

“Shut up, Enusat!” Jad snapped. “Did you grow up under a rock or something? Oh, wait. No. You grew up under a bridge.”

Enusat leaned over the edge of the bunk and pointed his finger straight at Jad. “Say that again when I’m ‘olding a sword!”

Jad laughed. “Fine. Let’s go outside right now.”

“Anyway,” Xerxes said, pushing the door open, “I’m not sure how Iong I’ll be. I have an idea where the temple is, but I’ve never been there. So don’t—”

By this point, Jad and Enusat were bickering and not paying attention to him.

“Go,” Kashtiliash said. “I’ll babysit.”

Xerxes slipped out of the room. His background as a member of the One Faith was the perfect cover for his activity related to the cult investigation.

The One Faith was the only religious practice that was tolerated besides the Church of the Pontifarch. However, even from a young age, Xerxes had been skeptical about the teachings his parents espoused. Members of the One Faith were taught that the Pontifarch wasn’t real, and that instead, a being called the ‘Monad’ reigned supreme in the starsea.

As for why the Nergal didn’t crack down on the One Faith as he did on any other heretical belief systems, nobody knew. When attending One Faith services, Xerxes had been taught that it proved their faith correct. The Monad was the true, all-powerful being in the starsea, so it only made sense that he kept his followers safe. Yet members of the One Faith experienced just as much death, suffering, and tragedy in their lives as everyone else. So Xerxes wasn’t sold on that explanation.

As he left the campus, he thought about Gandash. Unlike himself, Gandash was one hundred percent a true believer in the One Faith. He took his prayers to the Monad seriously, and was quite knowledgeable about theology. Had Gandash been going to the One Faith temple on Restdays? It seemed likely.

Instead of going south, as he had told his friends he’d do, he took a circuitous route toward the bazaar, doing his best to make sure he wasn’t being followed. He was fairly certain his friends had bought his story, but he wouldn’t put it past them to follow him.

Once he was certain he was alone, he headed to the bazaar and pulled out the map from the messenger tube. As he used it to navigate the maze of aisles and vendor stalls, he wondered for the thousandth time who his partner was going to be. He knew it was useless to think about it. But he couldn’t stop.

Eventually, he found the meeting location, a place on the very north end of the bazaar, where the marketplace ran right up against a lengthy wall that separated it from the further sections of the city. There were physical shops built into the wall, with some of them being restaurants.

And one of those restaurants had a sign out front that marked it as a place for coffee and tea.

Having no timepiece, Xerxes wasn’t sure if he was early or late, so he went in and looked around. The place was so shadowy it was impossible to tell if it was clean or not. There were no tables, only booths lining the walls, lit by flickering lamps. In terms of the smell, it was unlike anything he’d encountered before. Smokey, nutty, bitter, and sweet, all at the same time.

Smells pretty good, he thought. Now he was a bit excited to try this ‘coffee’ that he’d heard about.

There were a few customers present, but he didn’t recognize any familiar faces.

Guess I’m early, he thought.

Since no one greeted him, he approached the counter at the far wall.

“I’ll take one,” he said to the girl behind the counter.

She looked at him. “One what?”

“A coffee.”

She nodded in the direction of a sign on the wall. He looked at it and saw a huge list of names with prices attached.

“Oh.” The list was overwhelming. “Just a normal one, I guess. Whatever’s the most common. And inexpensive.”

“Okay. You want it black, or what?”

He didn’t know what that meant, but he liked the color black in general, so he said, “Sure, black.”

A minute later, she gave him a small ceramic cup with some dark liquid in it. He found a booth and sat. When he took a sip of the coffee, he nearly spit it out. Why would anyone drink this? Ugh.

After that, he waited.