Having placated the council's fears and given them new hope, the Grand Priestess gracefully descended the stairs leading to the throne. She walked out of the throne room and exited the building.
The palace had several beautiful rooms and pleasures meant to delight, yet none interested the mysterious woman.
Receiving bows from everyone who happened upon her, she walked away from the palace, her image, at one point, flickering out of existence, impossible to be traced even by one who had been watching her throughout.
Invisible to all, the Grand Priestess continued her walk toward the outskirts of the village, her destination away from the hill she had met Rio.
The sounds of wailing from the houses she passed by brought her neither sadness nor joy.
Her mind had left the events of the day behind, just as during the council meeting, she was thinking of a particular meal she hadn't eaten in decades and trying to recall the steps in it's preparation.
Her journey took her before a medium-sized temple supported by tall white pillars.
At the moment, both outside and inside the temple, several figures knelt in prayer, their devotion directed toward the ancestors and spirits represented by a giant female statue with six arms, three on each side, four huge breasts, and three eyes on her beautiful face.
Other than a short skirt, the tall statue was bare, its breasts exposed to the eyes f all who stepped into the temple.
Nodding at the sight within, the Grand Priestess silently walked past the dozens of worshipers and headed for the door at the back.
Usually, whenever she entered the temple, she would reveal herself to the world, but this time, with the large crowd present following the recent appearance, she decided to quietly slip through.
No one, not even the scantily dressed priestesses who served her and maintained order in the temple, noticed her entry.
Reaching the room at the back, the Grand Priestess let her form become visible again. Her sudden appearance made a few priestesses flinch but regaining their bearings, they bowed and continued their business.
Her antics weren't new in the temple and her gait unhindered, she moved toward the wall at the end of the room, reaching and walking through it.
From the temple's dimensions, it might have seemed possible for a small chamber to exist behind the wall she went through, but the vast underground cave the Grand Priestess stepped into could not possibly fit within the temple's boundaries.
Though the floor was rough with jagged rocks and the ceiling formed from compressed earth, the walls of the cave were smooth and lined with luminescent stones that softly lit the place.
"Grand Priestess," a soft female voice said just as the mysterious female appeared.
"His Majesty asks for you."
"Oh"
"I'll be heading there then," the Grand Priestess said, smiling at the woman draped in a thick brown robe.
Here within the cave, the women who served her were dressed modestly, their robes covering them completely, the indecency she portrayed a start contrast.
The Grand Priestess moved forward, passing through several caverns of varying sizes, till she entered one bathed in sunlight, the rays of sun filtering through a towering opening.
A high waterfall crashed violently into a deep basin, its source unseen, pounding down on a bare-chested man with a thick white beard and hair.
Enduring this torture with his eyes closed was Vostro Pulmas, the 13th King of Vladryl and father of Ark Pulmas.
Everyone believed Vostro to be second greatest ruler the country had ever had, a man blessed with a fraction of the Grand priestess's longevity but after being struck by powerful illness, became bed ridden and had his life prolonged only by the Priestesses care.
They couldn't be more wrong.
Vostro was here, in a mysterious location, within this network of caves, training his body to its limits and indulging his mischief every now and then.
"Vostro," the Grand Priestess called, approaching with slow hypnotic steps, her hips swaying and her breasts subtly shifting with each motion.
"Don't tell me you've been here since I left, the water could damage your skin."
"Catherine." His answered, his voice deep and quaking as he opened his eyes.
"Why did you activate Bram? Wasn't the plan to take him with us?"
Unlike others, Vostro's gaze was steady and unflinching, focused solely on Catherine's face.
The buffed man didn't care for the Priestesses caring words.
"That was the plan," Catherine said, licking her lips in thought, "but I might have found someone more… spicy."
"Is that why you let him kill Ark?" Vostro asked, a tinge of anger in his tone but Catherine simply crossed her arms and gave him a blank look.
"Are you forgetting that I don't interfere.
Besides, if you cared for him so much, why didn't you save him? It beats shouting and disturbing the region."
"He was my son and will be mourned like a warrior."
"Alright." Catherine nodded.
"The new boy has a strong link with death. There's a chance we'll be descending this epoch."
With those words, Catherine turned and walked away.
Whether Vostro's eyes followed the hypnotic sway of her hips or his mind lingered on her words didn't matter to her.
Catherine's concern at that moment was the dish she was on her way to prepare and the boy who should already be screaming his lungs out.
"He better survive."