"… urely, Tetrarch, your departed mother…"
"On that topic, what are you teaching my brother?"
"As I understand it," said abbot Shall-I-Alone-Escape-Death, "your brother Qefahl Aresh is on retreat."
"We're not overheard here? You assured me."
"We are not. This is, in fact, one of the most securely private places on the station, let alone the monastery." A pang of mixed guilt and exultation overcame Her-Breath-Contains. He had never told the abbot about his discovery at the feet of She-Commands-Me-And-I-Obey. He told himself the abbot would approve, if only he knew. Would have been disappointed if Her-Breath-Contains had so obviously failed to learn what the abbot had tried to teach him.
"So," said the tetrarch Qefahl Brend. "Dispense with your pious fiction."
Her-Breath-Contains' back ached, and the conversation between Seven-Brilliant-Truths and Sister Ultimately-Justice continued, but at this moment nothing could distract him from the conversation between the abbot and the tetrarch.
"A monk," answered the abbot Shall-I-Alone-Escape-Death, "is severed from all family and social connections. When one takes vows one takes a new identity. I should not have to explain this to you."
An exasperated sigh. "What are you teaching the minor novice Her-Breath-Contains-The-Universe?"
"Only the usual."
"Don't toy with me, abbot. I studied with you myself, back in the day. My younger brother's death was less convenient than sending him here. Let him learn his prayers and no more, or I might have to re-consult my convenience."
A strange feeling passed over Her-Breath-Contains, a shivery sensation that seemed to start both at the back of his neck and in his stomach, half a moment before he consciously understood what Qefahl Brend had just said.
"Don't look so shocked," continued the tetrarch. Her-Breath-Contains-The-Universe's brother. "You play politics as much as I do."
"You learned a great deal from me," said the abbot Shall-I-Alone-Escape-Death. "But some things I was never able to teach you. You believe any display of piety must be either insincere or foolish. But no matter how ruthless I am, no matter how political — and I must be ruthless and political, for the sake of this monastery — I remain a servant of the Go—"
A hand landed forcefully on Her-Breath-Contains' shoulder and he dropped his hands from the statue base, straightened and spun, to see Seven-Brilliant-Truths frowning down at him. Her-Breath-Contains blinked at him stupidly. "Ah…"
"Leave the child be," said Sister Ultimately-Justice. Her-Breath-Contains turned and saw her finally, a woman in the plain brown coverall of a monastic, her hair cut short. Her dark face looked just slightly odd in a way Her-Breath-Contains couldn't place. She seemed precise as her speech, and so solidly where she was, as though wherever she placed her feet she was rooted to the ground. He wondered if that was what Seven-Brilliant-Truths had meant when he’d said she had the look of a fanatic.
Seven-Brilliant-Truths was looking at him strangely, unsmiling. Not as though he were angry, but something else. "She your favorite?"
Her-Breath-Contains’ face went hot again. "Yes."
An expression flashed across Seven-Brilliant-Truths' face, quick and disquieting. He dropped his hand from Her-Breath-Contains-The-Universe's shoulder and looked as though he wanted to step back.
"Very commendable," said Sister Ultimately-Justice, each syllable dropping exactly. "Can you tell me about her game?"
"She's not a player," said Seven-Brilliant-Truths, sparing Her-Breath-Contains from admitting his ignorance. "Not one of the Hundred. She's a, what do you call it, a symbol, an idea…"
"An allegory."
"That." The strange expression remained on Seven-Brilliant-Truths' face. He looked at Her-Breath-Contains. "But you didn't know that."
Her-Breath-Contains gestured no, mortified. He didn't want to explain, didn't want to show anyone what a baby he was, had been. Didn't want to say, she was my friend when I was little. He waited for Seven-Brilliant-Truths to ask why her, or to mock him. Instead, the monk said, "She's more for visiting teams than for us, these days. When She-Who-Sprang-From-The-Lily commands…" He made a slicing gesture across his throat. "One obeys. You understand me, Sister." He grinned again, a flash of moissanite.
"I do," she answered, utterly unperturbed.
"She was the special devotion of the abbot Hold-Her-Commands-As-A-Mirror-To-Your-Heart, did you know that, boy?"
"No."
Seven-Brilliant-Truths turned to Sister Ultimately-Justice. "Surely you've heard of him, Sister. Hold-Her-Commands-As-A-Mirror-To-Your-Heart was meditating by the monastery fishpond with two of his disciples when he bodily transcended this world and was received by the Goddess. He physically stepped from this world to the next. A genuine saint."
"One of the disciples who witnessed it," Ultimately-Justice said, "became abbot in his place. The other died soon after."
"You're a student of Blue Lily history."
"No," she said. "It was obvious."
Seven-Brilliant-Truths blinked, frowned, stepped away from Ultimately-Justice. "I'll leave you to your prayers. Brother. Sister." He bowed slightly, turned and left. Her-Breath-Contains would have sworn he was unnerved. It frightened him.
"He's afraid of you," said Ultimately-Justice, with that careful, slightly rough voice, as though she had read his mind. "Tell me, are you ambitious like your brother?"
"Wh—" What little balance Her-Breath-Contains had gained was knocked away from him again. "How…?"
"When was the last time you looked in a mirror?" Her-Breath-Contains didn't answer, and Sister Ultimately-Justice continued. "It is an unsuitable position for a child to be in. I will give you advice. Be aware of your surroundings. If you are ambitious, be also silent. Or you may find yourself a genuine saint at the bottom of the monastery fishpond."
Suddenly Her-Breath-Contains understood the implications of the story Seven-Brilliant-Truths had just told, and of Sister's confident it was obvious. Though he'd heard of the abbot's translation hundreds of times, the idea of murder had never occurred to him before. He thought of his brother saying I might have to re-consult my convenience and felt nauseated.
Sister Ultimately-Justice smiled mildly, rooted in stone. "What do you learn, contemplating She-Commands-Me-And-I-Obey?"
She knows, he thought, knowing at the same moment that it was unreasonable. She couldn't possibly. He opened his mouth to speak and then remembered what she had just said to him.
"A quick learner." Her smile did not alter.
On game day, Noage Itray was an endless vista of blue, except for the irregular patch near one end and spinward, where residents of the Harime quarter had covered their roofs in white. The abbot Shall-I-Alone-Escape-Death had ordered Her-Breath-Contains-The-Universe to accompany him down onto the court, and so he stood just behind the Blue Lily goal line, holding a gently smoking censer. Tetrarch Qefahl Brend was just on the other side of the abbot — tall, his dark face long and angular, hair braided back with embroidered satin ribbons, apparently completely unaware of Her-Breath-Contains' existence.
Seven-Brilliant-Truths-Shine-Like-Suns stood ready to receive the abbot's blessing. He wore a loose robe of scarlet satin, covered in tiny blue lilies edged in gold thread. Gold hung from his ears and in layers around his neck, under wreaths of blue and orange flowers. The three other Blue Lily players were similarly decked, but not quite so resplendent as Seven-Brilliant-Truths. He received so many gifts, and such luxurious ones, that even when he had given the monastery its share he was awash in money.