Some Parts of the Gathering were Devoted to Pleasure [8 Hispis 4385]

La Hish:"My goodness! I don't know precisely what I was expecting the famous Vaisessasilmin to look like, but I was not expecting quite so many and so colorful of butterfly wings! You seem like an insectile sort of blossomary!"

Which Vae does, today. She's a yard-long length of glittering blue and green chain, with a serpent's head at one end, and as many butterfly wings as she can possibly cram onto her surface.

Vae:"Thank you!" She can't blush, having no fur (though I use feathers to much the same effect), but she turned the air around her into a shower of tiny asterisks, spiralling downwards, which served much the same purpose.

Saza:"Yes, indeed. Few primes are nearly so willing to devote their very bodies to the purposes of art..."

Otresto:"I should not say that no primes do so. Though I, myself, prefer clothing."

La Hish:"Dear Otresto, if your clothing is a matter of art, it is a message of chaotic woe to the entire universe."

Otresto:"From behind only!"

Saza:"But why, dear Otresto, do you want to present a message of chaotic woe to the half of the universe that is behind you?"

Otresto:"My dear Sazandigraa, it is the central credo of the Temple of the Dark Trinity. Whereof I am now ecclesiastical chieftan."

Me:"That seems rather an important job ... but, why is it called 'chieftan'? The word suggests the warlord of a brutal Gormoror hill tribe."

Otresto:"If you had ever attended a meeting of the ecclesiastical störmgething, you would be surprised at the gentleness of the word. None so vicious as the devotees of the dark gods, disagreeing over a fine point of the wording of some minor and probably incorrect prophecy!"

Saza:"So, what happened to Nangbang?" Turning to me and Phaniet, zie explained, "The prior chieftan."

Otresto:"Nangbang is currently lying in a shallow grave in the hills of Mrasteia."

La Hing:"My word! Do I hear that you confess to killing dear Nangbang and concealing his body?"

Otresto:"Nothing of the sort. He is enjoying a period of a very immediate form of study in the more applied aspects of the theology of Accanax. I daresay he will stop short of actual decomposition, though his fur may take a few months to recover its proper lustre."

Phaniet:"What's he doing for air?"

Otresto:"Breathing through a reed, I should think."

La Hing:"Goodness gracious! Is this ordinary behavior for the ecclesiastical side of the Temple?"

Otresto:"Heavens of Staring Gods, no. How can you even ask such a question? Usually the live-burials are done in coffins full of dirt, inside the city proper. Quite a nice break from ordinary life! Would you like to try, Sythyry?"

Me:"I'm afraid that I am not currently such a devotee of Accanax as to require that sort of religious observance at the moment."

Otresto:"You won't be joining the störmgething for the course of your visit?"

Me:"I'm afraid not."

Phaniet:"Could I? I think that a day or two buried in a coffin in the Temple of the Dark Trinity in Oorah Thrassen sounds quite relaxing. The skyboat's still a bit unsettled."