The young priestess returned shortly with her superior.

The older priestess dismissed the younger with a barely perceptible nod, then turned to Conn and Trilisean. “How may I serve you, children?”

The high priestess was striking. Conn couldn’t guess at her age. Her fair skin was smooth and flawless, but there was a touch of frost in her raven hair and her grey eyes held wisdom and serenity of a clan elder. Her black robes were trimmed with intricate embroidered symbols, and her left wrist bore a tattoo of a wreath of bare branches, surrounded by falling leaves.

The deeply suspicious part of his soul wondered if it was her pact with the goddess of death and decay that allowed her to retain her youthful beauty, but the cynical part, nurtured by years of soldiering and close association with the thief at his side pointed out that the High Priestess had probably never done hard labor in the glaring sun with a baby on her hip.

“A mutual friend asked me to look into recovering something for you,” said Trilisean. “That seems to have become more complicated than he lead me to believe. If you still would like me to find this item, I’m going to need more from you.”

“More of what, child?”

“Information and gold,” Trilisean replied. “The less of one, the more I’ll need of the other.”

“And the assurance of Morwen’s gratitude is insufficient?”

“No disrespect to the goddess, but that’s a favor I hope not to redeem for a long time yet, and without more information as to the job, I feel my chances of meeting her very soon are higher than I care for.”

Conn saw a brief disturbance in the serenity in the priestess’ eyes, like a cloud across the face of the moon, but it passed swiftly.

“Follow me,” she said. “This is a tale better told in private.”

They followed the Priestess into a small chamber and took seats. She poured a small measure fo spirit into three glasses and handed one to each of her visitors.

The priestess smiled when Conn unconsciously sniffed his before sipping it.

“Fear not, mercenary,” she said. “All souls come to Morwen in their time. We do not hasten that meeting. She would find it impertinent.”

“You pardon, Reverend Mother,” Conn replied. “I spend a great deal of time in the company of impertinent women.”

“May it bring you wisdom, my son.” She turned to Trilisean. “And what complications have arisen in regards to this item?”

“I went to the crypt and found no necklace.” she paused and sipped her drink “I did find a body.”

“In a crypt?” asked the priestess. “Horrors.”

“It was, however, the body of the young man you believe stole the necklace. The body of the young woman around whose throat he expected to place it was, alas, not there.”

The priestess’ eyes widened. Trilisean smiled sweetly and continued, “Now, it may be that Morwen takes the long view, and while specific corpses may ebb and flow, at least the number was correct, so perhaps this isn’t all that serious–“

“Enough!” snapped the priestess. “You have made your point. Further blasphemy will be unnecessary.”

She looked down, drumming her fingers on her knee. “This is very bad. You’re right. This is complicated.”

“So why not tell me about this necklace. If it were just an heirloom, like I was told, you wouldn’t be so concerned.”

“This necklace contains a great and terrible power,” she said. She dragged in a deep breath, let it out in a long sigh. “The young man learned a legend. That it could restore the recently deceased to life. But that is only part of th truth. I’m certain the body of Lirien Ui Haerin is walking the city as we speak.”

“But?” prompted the thief.

“The jewel did not restore her life. Her soul has gone. Another spirit has donned her flesh. And it could hardly have been a worse choice. Lirien was beautiful Is beautiful. She was already able to bend men to her will. But now...”

“What now? What is this spirit?” asked Trilisean.

Conn felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The priestess dealt in the mystical and the thief was afraid of nothing except being paid with a clipped coin, but Conn was an Aeransman, raised on tales of spirits and hauntings, of beasts that steel could not harm, and sorcerers who could enslave men’s minds.

And he had fought a few.

The high priestess drained her glass before speaking. “We have assembled much ancient lore here. Many learned scribes and sages, when they felt their health fail, and they heard the sweet whisper of Morwen’s call, entrusted many ancient tomes and items of fell power to our keeping. They knew that few would risk the Goddess’ wrath to steal from our temple. We have learned much. Some that we have used for the betterment of people and to ease the suffering and passage of the sick, and much that we have guarded because it is too dangerous.

“Long ago, there was a... group. I’m not sure if it was a race or a band of sorcerers, or a cult of some forgotten deity. Whatever they were, they feared death so much that they found a way to preserve their consciousness, to bind it into a jewel, so that upon the death of their bodies, it could be introduced into another host. Young Keiran discovered the ritual, and enough of the power that he though he could return his beloved to life. Our warnings he interpreted as the unwillingness of a jealous Goddess to relinquish her hold on the young woman.”

“So now some ancient sorcerer is walking around in the body of a young noblewoman?”

“Precisely”

“Do you know what the sorcerer can do?” Trilisean asked.

“Not exactly, but we do know the lengths to which she would go to avoid death. And that they accumulate knowledge.”

“They do what, now?” asked Conn.

The high priestess sighed. “As far as we can tell, they accumulate knowledge. They wrote of a ritual in which they would absorb the memories of another. Through drinking blood, we think.”

“Damn,” said Trilisean. “The young man was stabbed in the heart, but there was no blood round him.”

“Then the creature knows everything our young man did.”

“Good thing he was a young noble,” said Conn. “There wouldn’t have been much to learn.”

“Except for where he got his information about the jewel,” said the priestess.

“Where would he find that?”

The priestess shrugged. “Some sage. One with a great deal of obscure knowledge. Such a man would be a trove of secrets to such a creature.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” said Trilisean.

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