“I wasn’t expecting you to join me down here,” Phos said warmly as her daughter sat beside her. “O Flame, guide our path,” she heard Dendra intone before entering the space. Suddenly the sound of washing came from the corridor beyond the cell wall. “A sacrifice from all for each, is freedom’s light command,” she half sang the line from one of her people’s liberation songs. Not all felt the same though, and the Temple above would be for all who sought the Flame’s warmth. The pain of her servitude, though not forgotten, had been diminished by the light that followed. This was the first place hallowed since their liberation. Despite her time bound here, this was where the Flame’s way was given.
Though the ritual center of her people’s faith would move, and this place would see little use after.Įven before the change came, she felt wistful for the old improvised sanctuary. Once the structure above was finished, this place where she and the others were first blessed by the Flame’s light was to be preserved. Phos sat meditating on the stone floor of her old cell in the mines below the nearly-completed Temple of the Flame.
