'Mother Dhauna doesn't want to be ignored,' Feena grunted. She stood and offered her guests a bow. 'Please excuse me,' she said. 'It seems there's something I must see to.' She laid a hand on Julith's shoulder. 'Julith can tell you anything you need to know. Thank you very much for taking the time to come and speak with me.'
She turnedand Mifano and Velsinore turned as well, moving to intercept her as the rest of the group converged on Julith. She shot the pair a hard glance.
'Not now,' she snapped.
'Feena!' Velsinore began angrily.
Feena glared at her. 'I said not now!'
She crossed the courtyard at a swift stride. As soon as she was beyond the cloisters and inside the temple, she broke into a furious run, hastening up to the High Moonmistress's quarters before Dhauna could try calling her again.
The high priestess stood at the door, waiting for her.
'Do you ever intend to come when I call you?' the old woman asked.
'I was busy, Mother Dhauna,' Feena snarled. 'Did you look out your window? I was in the courtyard meeting with people. Important people!' She stormed past Dhauna and into the sitting room. It was dark. The High Moonmistress had drawn the curtains against the sun. Magic lit the desk in a puddle of light. Dhauna closed the door and waddled over to the desk.
Feena looked at her and frowned. 'Where are your canes?'
'I put them aside,' said Dhauna. 'Selune gives me strength.'
She'd used magic to bolster herself, just as she had on the night of the Full Moon Blessing. Feena's eyes narrowed.
'What's going on, Dhauna? Why did you call me?' 'I've unlocked the meaning of the dreams.' Feena stared at her in surprise for a moment, then asked, 'What?'
Dhauna scowled and said, 'Are you deaf? Is that why you don't come when you're called?' She shoved her chair out of the way and bent over a series of books and scrolls laid out on the desk. 'I said I've unlocked the meaning of the dreams. I know what Selune has been trying to guide me toward.'
There was only the barest trace of triumph in her voice and no joy at all. Feena hesitated before asking, 'You've uncovered the heresy?'
'Yes and no,' Dhauna replied, gesturing. 'Come look at this.'
Feena stepped over to the desk and looked down at the collection of records laid out there. Dhauna pointed at the first of them, a book of dark, greasy parchment. The ink on the pages had bled badly over time, but the book was clearly written in the angular Dethek script used in the region of the Moonsea.
'This is a record of inquests held at the House of the Moon in the city of Thentia,' said Dhauna. 'It came to Moonshadow Hall about a hundred years ago, but parts of the record are as much as two centuries older. This was written in about 1194.' She cleared her throat and read, ''Mirela, Fela, and Iwna Telsk, the three sisters who tended Selune's shrine at the trade moot of Glister until the Year of Sinking Sails, stand accused of the New Moon Heresy. As the sisters perished in that year, we declare that none may judge them save Selune herself and in memory of their long years of true faith, declare them acquitted of these false and heinous charges.''
Feena frowned again. 'I've never heard of the New Moon Heresy.'
'Neither had I,' admitted Dhauna. 'I wonder if the Thentians had either. The Year of Sinking Sails was U. 80 Dalereckoning. It's almost as if it took them fourteen years just to assign a name to whatever those three priestesses did. And Glister is only a remote crossroads even father north than Thentia. To have crossed that distance and endured so many years of investigation, the rumor must have been something shocking.' She put her finger on the eptry. 'But as soon as I found this entry, I knew it was what I was looking for. Then I found this…'
She moved her finger to a scroll of cracked parchment that was being held flat by a shoe on one side and the moon's road tiara on the other. The scroll had been written in the bold curves of Thorass that Feena could read herself. ''And long be chanted the name of Marrigan, who heard the call of Selune and turned her back on the Gray Wolves to become a hero of the New Moon,'' she read out loud. She looked at Dhauna. 'Wait. Here it sounds like the New Moon Heresy is something highly regarded.'
'This scroll is a transcription of legends told by the more civilized of the Uthgardt tribes of the Silver Marches in the northwest beyond the Anauroch desert,' said Dhauna. 'The scroll is centuries old, but the stories are probably even older.'
Feena's eyebrows rose. 'I've heard of the Gray Wolf Uthgardt tribe,' she gasped. 'They're werewolves!'
Dhauna nodded and said, 'And savages by all accounts, so a Gray Wolf following the call of Selune must have been something. Unfortunately, that's all the scroll has to say about Marrigan. Two clues about the New Moon Heresy, yet still nothing clear. But then…'
She reached for a folded leaf of fine vellum and carefully opened it.
The vellum had been used to take a rubbing of some stone inscription. The carved words were in both Dethek and Thorass, in two columns of characters. Feena took the vellum gently and held it up to read the ghostly words.
To the memory o/Niree Swifthands. In Elmwood, a Hero of the New Moon Pact, in Chancelgaunt, a Heretic. Murdered in treachery and jealousy there at Bright Lady's Tower in the Year of Lost Wayfarers, 757. Selune guide her to rest.
'Chancelgaunt is the old name for Selgaunt,' said Dhauna. 'The rubbing was taken in the Temple of the
Half-Moon in Elmwood, an ancient village on the south side of the Moonsea.'
'I've been there,' said Feena. 'I don't remember seeing this memorial.'
'It may well be gone or by hidden nowthe rubbing was made almost four hundred years ago, two hundred years after this Niree Swifthands was executed at Selune's temple in Selgaunt.'
'There's no temple to Selune in Selgaunt.'
'There was six hundred years ago. Ironically, it was abandoned and demolished not long after 757. Its library was brought here.' Dhauna opened the final book on the table, a grand tome bound in silver and white leather. 'Eighteen Kythorn, the Year of Lost Wayfarers,' she began.
Feena moved around to read over her shoulder.
I, Brima Chintamn, High Moonmistress of Bright Lady's Tower in Chancelgaunt, declare the ancient Pact of the New Moon to be ended. The lands and goods held by it and its former members are forfeit and are to become the property of the temple of Selune to which they lie nearest. Its tales and legends are declared false and are to be purged from archives and expunged from memory. Its members are declared heretics. Those in our custody have been tried and found guiltythey are cast out ofSelUne's grace, in body and in soul. Should any remain free, let them also be cast out of Selune's grace. Their heresy has damned them. I pray that Selune's face turn away so that their souls walk in darkness until the end of time.
I, Rian Liurandel, Priestess of the High Moonlight of the House of the Moon in Waterdeep, concur and so pray.
I, Zarran Tonnos, High Moonmistress of Moonmaiden's Hall in Murran, concur and so pray.
I, Bero Falabara, High Moonmaster of the Crescent Shrine in Alaghdn, concur and so pray.
I, Mara Nightnever, High Moonmistress of Moonshadow Hall in Yhaunn, concur and so pray.
The list went on, another half dozen high priests and priestessesthough not the high priestess of Elmwood adding their condemnation.
'Moonmaiden's grace,' breathed Feena. 'What was this Pact of the New Moon and what did they do?'
Dhauna began flipping back through the book as she explained, 'According to the records of their trial, the New Moon Pact was an order of priests and warriors in Selune's service throughout the north and west of Faerun. They were never large, but they were ancientthis makes passing mention of events centuries before the trial, which would fit with the Uthgardt legend of Marrigan. And even though they were a small order, over time the Pact accumulated significant wealth and power while answering to no temple or clerical hierarchy.'
'The New Moon Pact is a strange name for a Selunite order,' Feena observed. 'The new moon is a dark time.'
Dhauna looked up at her. 'The New Moon Pact,' she said in a quiet voice, 'did dark deeds. They claimed to serve the interests of Selune that couldn't be spoken openly.'
Feena's eyes went wide. 'Assassins?' she choked.
