Page Six (braiiins!)

"Possibly a crisis of faith, or possibly that it's quite rich and I'm not all that hungry. It's good, though."

"The fish's pretty good, too."

"Did you have anything particular in mind you wanted to talk about?" In the unlikely event that he was looking for a complete stranger to spill his guts to, she was available, but she doubted she could offer anything in the way of help or advice.

"Eh, I was only going to ask why you chose a kingfisher. Apart from, obviously, liking fish." He might have meant the food or Fara and didn't specify.

The monk stole a look at Sebastian, then Shii. Both were either engaged in chattering or filling their faces.

Actually she did not like fish better than fowls, for example, but figured that when you pick a theme, you might as well stick to it.

"Nothing terribly interesting there, I'm afraid. I had a look at a couple of masks, and that one appealed to me. And fit, too." She froze for a moment, remembering something, and chuckled. "Odd coincidence, that. The only kingfisher-related myth I can think of is that they spring from someone after their death - but I cannot remember if kingfisher used to be soul and owl comes from the heart, or the other way around."

The Owl, however, seemed to have departed already; at least Nico couldn't see her.

"You have some interest in mythology?"

Weft listened to the myth with a serious expression, as though she was telling him cast-iron fact.

"Not all mythology, but folk religions yes. At least I studied some minor ones as part of my training."

Weft's order had a very hands-on approach to ecumenism. They more or less gave their novices a handful of small gods and told them to get on with things.

"Is that where you learned about... Jatauja?"

It would have seemed more natural to ask what kind of training that had been, but Nico was curious about that death of birds. Maybe they could get back to it.

"Oh, no, Jetaujat's a common figure where I grew up. Birds are..." he broke off, searched for a word and didn't find it. "Popular. We think birds are a good animal. So naturally someone thought up a deity. She's quite birdlike herself - always seen wearing a cloak of feathers - and when a bird dies, she takes it. I've never met or worked for her myself, you understand."

Somewhere in all that, Weft had very confusingly switched from quite obviously describing a human myth, to talking about her completely matter-of-factly as though she was a local politician.

Actually what confused Nico most was that someone would call birds as a whole - tiny hummingbirds and flying giants with wings spanning ten paces, running birds twice as tall as humans, swifts that slept airborne, penguins that were more at home in the sea than on land, let alone in the air, and all in between and besides - just one animal.

However, another aspect of Weft's explanation seemed more interesting to talk about.

"So, where you're from, how would one come to work for a goddess or god?"

Sebastian nearly choked on his food when it came to that last comment, covering his mouth dignifiedly with a napkin. He directed a slightly amused look at Weft and then copied the gesture again at Shii. He swallowed to empty his mouth and only then allowed himself to grin at Shii. "That does remind me I've never asked for pay. Do you think we could pull it off?"

"They can hire us if they have the funds. Isn't it the same for where you live?" He clocked Sebastian's reaction but didn't work out what they were talking about.

Anyway, look, he does his best in a foreign language, a'ight? He'd wanted to say they are a class of animal we consider particularly noble.

Nico tried to keep a bit of attention on the other guests' conversation, despite having to take her sweet time with the next mouthful to gain some time to consider.

"I'm a bit at loose ends at the moment," she began matter-of-factly, before her tone grew lively again. "I've been in many different places with many different attitudes towards gods and religion, that's why I asked. How are things organised where you're from? Do the gods handle their business personally, or do they have a clergy that does the legwork when they want to hire someone?"

"That really depends on the god. We have ever so many - folk ones, organised religions' ones, people who claim to be incarnate ones - they're usually trouble - and not all of them approve of my organisation or recognise us as, er, qualified to act on someone's behalf." (Another word he'd forgotten and had to paraphrase.) "It's very unusual for a deity to take enough interest or have an urgent enough need to hire in outside help. Then again, we specialise in the unusual." Weft grinned.

Shii snickered at Sebastian's question. It took a while to swallow her food though, now that she was paying attention to her table-manners. She seemed a bit distracted, as she was following the conversation held nearby. The monk had an interesting job description.

"Hmm, I don't know. What do you think would be our bargaining chip? Do we actually work for Her?"

"Jesters get paid, and we're certainly entertaining her and her court alone, hmm?" he said chipperly. "Although I suspect she would have some manner of lawmaker reserved just for something like this."

"I somehow get the impression none of you is likely to get bored with their job."

Aahhh, so many questions, and so little time. Nico hoped they'd just keep talking.

"We should definitely look into that, though." She could think of a few things to ask in return for having become an unwitting plaything of divinity. "You don't suppose we could get fired, do you?" she asked in mock-concern.

"That would be unheard of. We're strict professionals. We never stay home when we're sick," Sebastian replied and blinked innocently a few times, lending his words gravity with his shocked tone. It really sounded as if he saw the thought as preposterous. He sipped his drink with exaggerated finesse.

"What about all those times you tried to settle down? Couldn't retirement attempts be seen as trying to 'call in sick?'" Not her, nuh-uh. She wasn't going to test her limits with such endeavours.

He considered this for a few seconds, startled by the thought. "No, considering it all played into her hands," Sebastian finally decided.

She pondered on that for a moment, looking at it from different angles. "Well, she is a goddess, after all." And they were mere mortals living on the terms of bipolar luck. "If it came to that, what would you ask for payment, then?" She was actually rather curious about that and didn't hide it, hoping for an answer that would betray his real ambitions.