Rephidim Temple
Of the sights to be seen in the city of Rephidim, one of the most impressive (if not THE most impressive) would be the legendary Temple. More so than any palace or castle or fortress to be found on the surface, the Temple is an embodiment of ancient and almost timeless authority. Yet, it is also an embodiment of corruption, for anyone who knows any of the truth, and the state of disrepair of so much of the Temple is a standing testament to this. Nonetheless, Templars and Inquisitors and Auditors and Priests make their way through its gleaming corridors, tending to daily business and personal agendas. Like it or not, here can be found the driving force behind Rephidim … and much of Sinai at large.

The door begins to cycle open in Tahir's room as the candidate returns from another day of touring the temple. The human enters quietly and waves to a figure outside as the door slowly closes behind him.

The Savanite looks up from her cot, where she was sitting plucking at her mandolin strings. She tries to catch a view of the person Tahir is waving to, but gives most of her attention in a smile to the young human.

The figure outside looks… well… like a mirror image of Tahir. The cheetah gets a quick glance at him before the door closes completely.

Leeta feels a cold twitch down the back of her legs, but it passes. She puts her instrument down in its case, "Tahir?"

The human quickly strips off his outer robes. "Goodness but it was hot today. Hello Leeta, I hope you haven't been too lonely without me."

The cheetah shakes her head again, but stares even more intently at the human, waiting for him to look at her, then signing, "It went very well, I played my music." She points at her mandolin, then looks back and asks again, "Tahir?"

The candidate looks confused for a moment then smiles and smacks himself in the head. "Fire-Mane" he signs, and then speaks out loud again, "Sorry… we haven't used our little signal very much."

Leeta relaxes, all the spring going out of her legs. "It was seeing the… other candidate. Lately I don't even recognize myself. What did you do today? Interesting things?"

"Ah." Tahir says, glancing at the mandolin. "Today was fairly boring… although I was able to speak with my Technopriest brother. We may switch duties sometime soon."

The fire-haired Savanite slips from the bed, and takes Tahir's robe. She folds it and sets it aside to be washed. Noticing the human's attention on her instrument she asks, "Would you like me to play something?"

Tahir lies back on his bed, propping his head up on his folded arms. "If you would like… or perhaps you could tell me why you've been so quiet these past few days." He winks.

Leeta nods, sitting at the foot of Tahir's bed, where he can see her signs. "I was just thinking of my former life, before you and the whole temple actually. As a slave, and thinking about my sister."

"Was your former life so different from your present life?" Tahir asks as he kicks his shoes off.

"A little bit Tahir, different in some ways." She catches his shoes off the bed and puts them down beside it. "I was just a slave, I certainly didn't have the freedom you give me. I never had a friend that wasn't another Savanite. The food I had was bad a lot of times, and sometimes I was doing very boring or hard work… "

The Savanite smoothes the bed covers in front of her, then continues, "… but I never cried as much as I have these last few months. Does that mean I was happier, as just a slave?"

Tahir looks up at the skylight. "Perhaps… or perhaps your life was just simpler and more easy to predict then. Change is not an easy thing to cope with when it comes at you all at once, I, if anyone, should know."

Leeta waits for Tahir to look back down at her, making a quiet mew to speed that up. "That might be it. I just had to do what I was instructed to do. All I had to concentrate on was being a good slave and pleasing my masters… Is there anything you wanted to talk about Tahir?"

The human moves to the other side of the bed so that he's closer to the Savanite. "Perhaps just what is on your mind. Has anything happened to you recently?"

Leeta brushes her hand through Tahir's red hair, nodding slowly. "I found out the truth I think. It must be, it makes the least sense of all. Now I don't know what I'm supposed to be… did you know I used to be a princess? Or maybe I still am, Princess Fire Mane."

Tahir sits up. "Where did you hear this? I hope it's not what has been upsetting you these past few days… most people are happy to find out they're royalty."

Leeta's ears give a small wiggle, "I am, I think. I keep signing it, Princess Fire-Mane, Princess Fire-Mane. I don't even think of myself as Fire-Mane anymore Tahir, it just sounds like someone else. Its… well, its what came with it. You said you might switch duties with your brother… I'm afraid I might switch places with Third-Eye."

"Do you fear you might become her?" Tahir asks. "The power hungry shaman you mentioned?"

The Savanite nods, "Yes… or no, I mean… I'm not sure what I mean. Looking through all those secrets, I've started seeing ways I could use them. I want to use them for a good change… but I wonder, is that how Moffat started, is that how Third Eye started." Leeta brushes back her mane, pushing it behind her ears. "I'm not even sure what Third Eye has done recently is wrong, that maybe she's doing the right things, for the wrong reasons."

"Trying to change everything, for a chance at a better life." She turns to look at her friend, "Third Eye has cubs now, orphans. She might be different, and doing it all for them."

"Your people are a powerful one… or were at any rate. It does not surprise me that there are some of you left with the spark of that in them still." Tahir says.

Fire-Mane looks at Tahir's eyes, "Can you tell me what we once were, so I know… just what it is I'm choosing for, and what we lost?"

Tahir rubs fingers through his hair. "You come from a race of conquerors, who had slaves of their own. They were responsible for many of the aspects of the Temple itself… even if I am no longer at liberty to say as much."

"You predict how Rephidim moves with a Savanite device, with crystal hands like this?" Leeta makes the sign of the star and anchor, as the Vartan did, filling in the missing fingers with her own.

"Yes, exactly." The human says. "But that's a secret… where did you hear about that?"

"From the same people that told me I was a princess, am a princess… after they told me how the Savanite empire is going to be restored." Leeta turns the star and anchor sign around, to see just what it says, then continues, "So we were conquerors, and had our own slaves? I thought your people brought the temple here."

Tahir smiles. "Many came with us. It was the Expedition afterall. We all had our own offerings."

Leeta signs, "I hope you weren't some of our slaves, Tahir."

"No… we were part of another confederation. Although some of their slave races have risen up from their humble beginnings." Tahir says… then he lowers his voice, as if afraid that the walls themselves might hear it. "… like the Naga."

"The Naga? They were our slaves?" Leeta blinks, at a total loss, shaking her head. "Masters of the Naga… I just can't see it Tahir… but if you say its true, then it must have been. Were we… terrible and cruel?"

The Savanite picks up her mandolin, and runs her fingers across the strings, plucking random notes. She stops long enough to sign, "We lost alot when our speaker boxes stopped working, didn't we."

The human folds his arms behind his head and lies back down on the bed. "The Silent-Ones meant well I suppose… but their methods were wrong." He scratches at his cheek, "And as far as I recall… you functioned just fine without your speakers. You preferred to function without them actually."

Leeta lays her mandolin down, and moves around to lie beside Tahir, so she can also look up at the stars through the skylight. She holds her hands up, in the way. Her signs will be twisted, but he should be able to make them out, "What did we do wrong?"

Tahir squints his eyes at Leeta's signs for a moment. "You were a little too enthusiastic about your religion… and took it upon yourselves to convert some of the other races, by force sometimes."

"The Star… but… Tahir. That can't be wrong as well. They're the only things I have left that haven't changed." Leeta waves her hand up at the dark and starry sky.

"Who is to say what is wrong and what is right?" Tahir says. "But to force an entire race to conform to it?"

"Thats what I've been asking myself Tahir, ever since I found out I am a princess, that Third Eye is a princess, and that the Savanite empire needs a queen." The fire-haired Savanites signs against the black backdrop of the sky, "Is it right to be a slave, is it right to rebel if you're a slave, is it wrong to want to stop someone being a queen, because you think the right thing is to do it yourself… and… is it wrong to want to stay a slave… because it might make you happier than doing all the right things?"

Tahir just shakes his head. "I cannot answer those questions for you, Leeta. I have never been a slave, nor have I been royalty… and my only siblings are my two brothers."

Leeta signs, "How can I decide for everyone? I just want to cry again."

The Savanite drops her hands against her stomach, and stares up through the skylight.

"You must decide for yourself before you decide for the world." Tahir says. "What are the consequences of either of your decisions?"

"I think they're all bad, because I can't see how anything I decide doesn't make me lose you." Leeta looks at her friend, "I asked them to make me a candidate to be queen… because… I couldn't just let Third Eye take it, without knowing. If I become the Queen, I'll have to go to the Savan, and what happens there will probably mean I'll never be able to come back. They also don't want a queen who's friends with her former master."

Leeta signs, "Third Eye though, maybe she is different, maybe she would make a good queen. I just don't know right now, I have to find out. Maybe one of my other sisters would want to, they haven't been told either… "

Tahir's voice lowers. "Nor do they want an Astromancer who's former slave is a Savanite queen." He stares blankly up through the skylight.

Leeta tries to sign, and she can't. She just starts swallowing and blinking up at the stars. Her hands clench and unclench, she can't form the words.

"I would be Third Eye then." She finally manages, "Destroying everything I love, for the power to change things."

The human sighs. "I cannot tell you what your path is, Leeta. You must choose that yourself and I will not stop you. But I also serve the Temple, and I might be able to do some good here. You must decide where you can do the most good."

"You should lock me in a room underneath the temple for three months. Anything else and I'm liable to hurt you. And I don't want to!" Fire-Mane signs, "Even if Third Eye does make a better leader than me, the Savanite Empire won't be stopped. Unless something extraordinary happens, it will exist two months from now. That will be bad for everyone left behind."

Tahir says nothing for a long moment. Finally he sits up and looks down at Leeta. "It is the faith of the Star to guide people, is it not? Well, the light of the star does not shine in the darkness… perhaps you should try to clear away as much of the darkness as you can before deciding. How much time do you have?"

Leeta signs, "I have two months, I think. I need to speak to Third Eye."

The Candidate nods. "And perhaps in two months, I will know what my own future holds. The Temple needs an Astromancer very badly right now with the war going on."

{Please Star, help us!} The fire-haired Savanite nods, "Do you know what your chances are, is there anything I can do to help you more than I am already?"

"I do not know. I know that the three different branches must make the decision together, but I do not know what their criteria is, and I do not know when they plan to make that decision." Tahir says. "But I feel that it might be soon."

Leeta stays lying on the bed, looking up at Tahir sitting beside her, and signing over her own face. "If I bring anything else to you, I hope it is luck. Your brothers look like you, but are they the same inside? All Tahir, or do they have other people's memories."

"They have the memories of others, I found out today that the Technopriest candidate was an old friend of mine actually." The human sweeps a hand across his sleeve. "The Bridge candidate keeps to himself for the most part."

"It must be so strange for you Tahir, to remember a whole different life while starting a new one. If mine wasn't changing so fast, I think I would just sit around and be confused thinking about yours." Her ears wiggle in her red hair, then the Savanite signs, "I hope we find out soon, but Tahir. No matter what happens, it will be bad for any slaves left behind here when the empire is restored. Unless you can free them before that happens, they will have to be warned, or a way made so they can escape. I don't see any way I can avoid being a part of a Rephidim encompassing slave rebellion. I can't just let them suffer, knowing what the empire has planned."

"Then you must decide which role you must take to make the transition the easiest in. As a slave or as a queen?" Tahir says.

Fire-Mane signs, "I think I could do more here as a slave, with you, than I could as a queen, far away and alone. If my sister will listen to me that is. I know at least I don't want revenge, but Third Eye was bitter when I knew her. If she wanted to punish everyone for making her a slave, then it would be better if I was queen. I guess it all balances on her."

"You really need a friend Tahir, and you will even more if you become Astromancer. I want to be there for you when you do." Leeta promises.

Tahir nods. "It would seem that we both are at the mercies of the whims of the fate. I only wish I could plot the course of people as easily as I could that of Rephidim."

Leeta sits up, then takes Tahir's wrists and holds them, squeezing his palms together then pressing hers against the backs of his hands, then she releases them. "There are Savanite hands to show you how Rephidim moves, and you have mine to help you with everyone else. The Star sent me to you for a reason, there has got to be a way we can get through this."

The human just sits there, keeping his hands pressed together. "Then we will just need to keep our eyes open. Even if I do not become Astromancer I will become an advisor to him… so my influence will still be there. There are so many paths that we might go along, so many routes to take… "

The Savanite nods, facing him with her hands folded in her lap. Her tail curling around her crossed legs and the black tip twitching.

"And I shall definitely need your help if I become Astromancer." Tahir says, patting Leeta's knee. "Canaan wants me to proclaim everything I know from the roof of the Temple, while Archelaus thinks I should shut up and do my job. It is nice to have a middle ground to defer to."

"Would you like some candy, Tahir?" She eventually asks.

Tahir chuckles. "Ah… a lifetime of shipmeals and now the overly decadent food of the Temple chefs. I wouldn't mind something bad for me for a change." He winks.

Her ears wiggling, Leeta slips from the bed and goes to her bureau. She takes out a stick of rock candy. "I don't know what flavor this is, beyond green. I was trying to hide when I bought it," she manages to sign, holding it between two fingers. She snaps the stick in half, and hands him a piece. "It's afew days old, but it should be fine, bad things can't turn bad, after all."

The human eagerly chews on the candystick. "You'd be surprised… some guard offered me some pieces of candy awhile ago. It had bugs in the middle… and time had not been kind to the bugs."

"A large Jupani? That might be Nebo." Leeta signs, sucking on her piece and discovering the problems of her muzzle and finger fur sticking to it. "Well, these should be okay." Her signs a little awkward as her fingers get sugary.

Tahir giggles as he watches Leeta's predicament. "So will you be leaving to see your sister soon?"

The Savanite nods, licking each finger trying to clean them, but instead causing them to trade more fur for candycoating. Her signs become even more awkward as she tries to keep them apart from each other, "Yes, both of them… soon… soon as I'm done here. I've been hiding enough."

"I hope all goes well, and that you find truth." Tahir says, looking into Leeta's eyes. He draws back his hands for a moment and winces at the greenish candygoo stuck to them. "Goodness but I'm out of practice with this."

Tahir does what any self respecting seven year old would do to clean his hands off. He wipes them off on his shirt.

"Clipt schurst bur me." Leeta fails to sign. She settles for just smiling and giggling her ears. She returns Tahir's look, her own eyes holding his. {I hope so too, and I hope the truth helps and doesn't hurt.}

The Savanite finishes her candy, and sticking her fingers together. Licking at the residue doesn't seem to help, beyond spreading it more evenly through her fur.

Tahir moves from off of the bed. "And if your sister does anything to harm you… she will have the Captain astromancer to contend with."

Leeta steps off the bed, Tahir's words helping fight the uneasy dread she has of facing Third Eye again. She grins, and makes a beeline for the sink, soap and water had better work. Otherwise, the whole Savanite empire will be defeated by a box of sugarsticks.