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The day before the games are due to begin, the Temple of the Ancestors sees many visitors.
Early in the morning, a young purple-haired boy rushes in. He pauses to take in the arrows and directions pointing him towards particular halls and ancestors, a clear giveaway that he has not been to this temple before, and then heads down the Golden Path.
He passes by the Goneril room, unsurprisingly, and pauses at the entrance to Riegan's room.
Is he not sure of his ancestry, the temple wonders.
But no, he appears to just be steeling himself, because he lets out a huff of air and loosens his shoulders, and then enters the room.
The temple does not pry, as to what goes on in the particular rooms. It just knows that the boy departs a few minutes later.
Instead of exiting the temple, though, the boy goes to the Hall of the Hidden, and disappears into the Leclerc room.
It's not unusual, exactly, to see someone with two of the renowned ancestors - in fact, the temple will see three more today - but Leclerc and Riegan…
Well, the last time the temple had seen that particular combination was… almost 30 years ago. A young lady, very similar to the boy.
And so the ancestry continues through her line, unbroken, the temple thinks, and is pleased by the thought.
The boy spends no longer in Leclerc's room than he did in Riegan's, and when he's done, he does actually depart.
Something about the ancestors makes it difficult to find visitors with strong connections to three different houses, but someday, the temple suspects, it will come.
–
The second visitor arrives on a chariot, though she doesn't need to be handed out of it like some of the elder visitors do.
This girl is clearly familiar with the temple, as she does not slow her steps in the slightest before following almost the same path as the boy.
She does not pass by the Goneril room, though; instead, she disappears into that.
A scant minute passes - a perfunctory offering to the ancestors? The temple would clutch its pearls, if it had any - and then she marches out the same way she'd entered.
Like the boy, though, she pivots before she would reach the exit, and she strides down the Crimson Walk, ignoring all the rooms until she reaches the most resplendent of the ones in that hall - Hraesvelg.
Ah, so Goneril is a lesser ancestor, the temple thinks hopefully. Its dreams are shot down a moment later, as she emerges just as quickly from this room.
Scandalized, the temple watches her leave. Perhaps its next visitor will be more polite.
–
Its next visitor does not look more polite. He stalks his way into the temple with the dangerous air of one who is not afraid to defend themselves.
His walk takes him to the serene Azure Ways, and the temple is not surprised when he goes into the Blaiddyd room.
A Riegan, a Hraesvelg, and a Blaiddyd, on the same day. Something is due to happen, it thinks uneasily, and it is not sure it is a good something.
But perhaps this man has more honor than the preceding visitor, for he spends a longer time than the boy and the woman combined in the room, and he looks deep in thought when he emerges.
The temple is not even surprised to see him turn to a different room, though it is a little surprising that he does not leave the hall to do so.
It remembers the arguments about whether to move this room to where it more properly belongs, in the Crimson Walk, but the temple had been adamant that the room of Martritz is part of the Azure Ways. It isn't sure why it knows that, but it does, and it had resisted any effort to shift its halls.
Some of its visitors who come to Martritz are gentle, are healers, are soft-looking. Others, like this man, look like they've come straight from battle. They're fighters, hard and strong. Both types, though, are as unyielding as the stones that make up the temple.
He spends a shorter amount of time in this room, but still longer than the woman had, and then he's gone with strides as long as those that had carried him in.
Interesting, the temple thinks.
–
Its last dual-room visitor of the day almost… sneaks in.
It doesn't notice her approach, just when she slips up to the door and opens it just wide enough to squeeze herself through.
A dancer, the temple thinks, and waits for her to go down the Crimson Walk.
Instead, she takes a moment to get her bearings and then walks gracefully and soundlessly across the main lobby to the Hall of Hidden Crests, disappearing into the room of Timotheos.
The ancestor hadn't claimed a surname, so the room has been named for her crest and not for her, unlike most of the rooms.
It wouldn't surprise the temple if this girl also does not claim a surname. It seems to be a theme.
She spends a perfectly suitable time in that room, unlike the Hraesvelg girl, and then moves into the Crimson Walk.
Ah, so the temple had been right with its first guess, it thinks as the dancer enters the Arnault room.
It is pleased with itself, as it usually is when it is able to make a guess. And it should have known, really, because it has met more than a few Arnault/Timotheos children before. The two ancestors had made no secrets about their feelings for each other, though the line doesn't always carry both crests so clearly.
Again, a suitable amount of time, and then this girl is out in the same stealthy way.
Almost like a Riegan, the temple thinks to itself. It has never met an Arnault or a Timotheos that has paired itself with a Riegan.
Fascinating. It hopes that all of these four will come back, so they can see how they've grown over the course of whatever historically-significant events are surely about to begin.
–