65

The spell breaks when a young man in a long white linen robe, wooden miter, and pale gloves comes tripping and stumbling toward you, his expression as harried and overwhelmed as a Byzantine bureaucrat on his first day of work.

He speaks to Keimia, and then you, in a confused babble of languages, then settles on the River People tongue, addressing you with great solemnity and considerable nervousness. He is Therko, this is the Apostolic Mound, and…are you here for questions? Did you send a messenger ahead? He trips over his own words to get all his questions out, glancing back at the indifferent Mound as if for reassurance.

Keimia's warriors look unhappy to be addressed by this bumbling administrator, but Keimia looks shocked. When Therko notices her, you understand why. Their faces show recognition, anger, longing, regret. You wonder how their relationship began, when it ended, and whether Chief Kothis's questions to the Apostolic Mound concern it in any way. Control seems oblivious to the tension in the air, her many eyes studying the higher-order organization evident in this place.