Ana carried herself differently than ever before when she presented herself to guide me to the Allmother. In all things she did, Ana was truly a Bloodpriestess, a leader among her people. When she was insulting the Veushten, the members of the Veratocracy, she did so from a place of pride and superiority over them. When she accepted me as fahvalo, she was elevating my status towards that of her own, a lofty position as an honorable foe. When she asked for me to punish her, it was because her pride had been threatened by her words, and she wished to immediately recover her pride.

When Bloodpriestess Ana asked me to follow her to the Allmother, she no longer displayed any of that bone-deep pride. She apologized for the interruption, something she had done only once before, and that for when she thought herself guilty of blasphemy. She bowed to me, and I’d never seen her lower her head to anything. Ana was not the Bloodpriestess, the warrior and commander, but Ana, the servant to the Allmother, and she was the perfect model of a submissive, humble servant.

“I… Ok. Let’s go.” I nodded to Ana before briefly asking for my children to forgive the interruption. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Took and gestured her over. “I’m going to meet with the Allmother, the leader here. Let Sybil know.”

Took nodded. “Anything I should do?”

I shook my head. “Keep an eye out. I’ll let you know where we can hunt when I get back.”

Another nod, then Took was off to find Sybil and, after that, Alaster. By seniority he should be First at this point, but he refused to go by anything other than Second. In fact, the entirety of the Alqat had not yet been reorganized, giving the simple excuse of “It is not yet time to replenish our ranks.”

As we walked I took in Ana’s obviously ceremonial robe. Before, she had worn only a thick loincloth, the rest of her black skin and body hair uncovered. She, like all female Moonchildren, had modest breasts at the most, and they were not full like a human’s. Instead, they varied little from those of the males, with the greatest physical difference being a slight softness to them, and that only slightly covering the ropy muscle that bound the entirety of a Moonchild’s physique.

This robe she wore covered the top of her head, and draped down, splitting at the back before coming over the shoulder and covering both breasts. It was a deep red, emblazoned with motifs of the moon in every one of her phases, waxing from the dark empty moon at the bottom, just below the bottom of her ribcage, to Narsha’at’s full glory at Ana’s head. The headdress left the thick hair running down Ana’s spine uncovered, and the robe worn underneath was a deep black that was more of a sheet than a robe, hanging open from her neck to her waist in front and back.

“You must listen to the Allmother’s words.” Ana spoke without looking at me, simply taking deliberate steps forward. “She may have much or little to say to you, but all that she speaks comes from what she Sees, and thus is more impactful and divine than you might think as an outsider. The Allmother is tolerant, but she demands respect. Offer no disrespect when you speak or act, as I am unable to tolerate disrespect shown to the Bloodsoaked Mother’s mouthpiece.”

I nodded as we carefully strode onwards, the trees and subterranean hovels diminishing in number around us. Finally, we entered a clearing in the forest of hazoma, and in the center was a shorter, thicker hazoma. There was an obviously well-trod path towards this separate tree, and more natural, narrow paths spiderwebbing across the clearing from the singular entry path. I wanted to ask questions, but I more than realized that now was not the time to ask potentially rude questions.

As we approached the apparent abode of the Allmother, a young voice called out, strident, “That’s enough, Ana. Send him forward.”

I glance towards the origin of the voice, and saw no living soul. In fact, I saw that the trunk of the hazoma had been hollowed out and there was a narrow entrance leading within. Ana nodded to the voice and stepped back wordlessly. Could the Allmother see us when when she apparently wasn’t within sight?

With as little hesitation as I could muster, I began stepping forward towards the carved entrance before stopping a couple of strides away from entering. “I’ve been told that you are ready to see me, Allmother, so I have come as quickly as I appropriately could have.”

The energetic voice called out, “Please, step inside. Let us counsel together.”

I began to feel nervous when my khatif sensibilities suddenly swelled within me, and I confidently stepped forward into the lair of the Allmother.

My eyes had begun adjusting to my dependence upon traditional sight, and, as I rounded the corner into the hollowed trunk of the sacred tree, my sight began to adjust to the sight before me.

A somewhat small Moonchild sat before me, her eyes veritably glowing in the dim light of the suns filtering through her door. Those eyes… were off-putting, and after a moment, I realized that they had no pupils. All the Moonchildren had disconcertingly large eyes, and the irises spread nearly to the edge of the eye itself. However large their irises, however, there remained the black pupils within them. The Allmother’s eyes faintly radiated a light from them, and there were no pupils to be found within them. Every one of her fingers showed the signs of having spoken the Phrases, and I could feel the unmistakable pull from her eyes that let me know she had spoken the sixth Phrase as well.

I also noticed that her skin lacked the looseness that comes with age–still it hung tight to her joints and firm musculature, and, except for her glowing, pupil-less eyes, the Allmother looked much like any young female Moonchild. She smiled at my searching eyes. “You did not expect the Allmother to be one so young as me, Ashlani.”

It wasn’t a question. I tried to think of how to respond when she continued, “No, we are chosen by birth and not by age or litters birthed, Ashlani. Those foreign to our customs are often surprised to find that the Allmother can be young. That is, when she is. Most of the time, the age fits the station. I am somewhat of an outlier in that respect.” The Allmother tittered at her words before suddenly sitting forward, her apparently blind eyes piercing into me. “Just like you, Fahvalo Ashlani Indraymaf, chosen of the gods.”

My mouth went dry. “What do you mean, ‘chosen of the gods’?”

“Precisely that. We have stories of the chosen, that they experience explosive growth beyond belief, that they tend to raise others up with them. You are… about three months old, yes? Yet you have grown so much farther than could be predicted by any in that time. You have a solid knowledge of how to evolve yourself, solid enough to cripple one of your senses, for days at a time and among your enemies no less, with the knowledge of eventual improvement. Does that answer your question?”

I swallowed. Twice. “How do you know these things?”

“I See.” The Allmother shrugged. “Now,” her voice cracked like a whip and she settled into her seat once again. “I have Seen two things which I desire to tell you before I leave you back to your rest and conversation with your children. The first is a specific answer to your question posed to our Ana–where to find more of your kind. Two day’s travel north northeast, you will find them. They are far less advanced than you and yours, but they should serve the purpose you seek. The second,” At this, she stood and stalked over to a shelf built into the wall of the room.

I finally was able to tear my eyes away from the Allmother as she looked away from me to find what it was she was searching for. The room… was odd. There were three layers of shelves that went around the complete circumference of the room, and nothing else, except for the chair in which the Allmother had been seated. The three shelves were filled with… random paraphernalia. Rocks, feathers, sticks, children’s dolls, bones, coils of rope, parchment… and much more. The Allmother grabbed a stone about .4m in width and .2m in height and length and carried it over to me. As I grabbed it, I let out an involuntary grunt–she had carried it without apparent effort, but it weighed the better part of 60kg.

“The second,” She repeated herself, “is this. Take it to Ytte, and tell her to investigate the stone. She will know, eventually, what to do with it.” With a nod, the Allmother finished, “That is all. Enjoy your journey, for it is only beginning.”

She’d dismissed me, and thus ended my meeting with the Allmother.