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them was prepared for what they would see when the building came into sight.
    All four warriors were instantly yanked from their reverie upon coming within shouting distance of the temple. Here the streets were not those of an average early morning. Today hundreds of people milled about, talking to one another in hushed tones, each of them pausing to stare as the quartet of newcomers passed. Several pointed and whispered as they approached, and as they neared the temple proper each of them was in awe of what they beheld. It was not that the temple had been altered in any major way; in fact, the same small entry remained, unmarked, unadorned and completely undecorated. Though the building had obviously seen some scrubbing and repainting, other than its new shine it remained completely unchanged. What was entirely different was the throng of people pouring into and out of the temple. Men and women by the dozens entered, each of them carrying bundles or packages, and as one group entered another would depart empty-handed. But those people who were exiting the temple were not leaving completely. These were the people milling about in the street, gathered silently to await something. Seth had an idea what it was that they waited for. Using his vision of the gods, Seth was surprised, but not overly so, to find that all those who had congregated here, more than five hundred, were devout worshippers of Ishanya. Every moment more entered the street from all directions. Seth imagined that in less than half an hour there would be more than a thousand people outside the temple which was designed only to accommodate around a hundred at full capacity.
    As the young couple clad in black armor approached the temple with their werewolf guards, the people stepped aside to let them pass easily, not out of fear it seemed, but out of respect. The people knew who they were, and Seth could not help but feel that they had also known that he would be coming here at this appointed time on this appointed day. The feeling sent shivers down his spine and set all of the hair upon his body on end. What game was Ishanya playing at?
    As Sara and Seth went through the small entrance to the temple, those who came up the stairs in the opposite direction turned, retreating out of the way. Following the latest throng to enter the temple down the stairs, Seth and Sara beheld the temple in its altered state. Pausing upon the bottom step to take in the new appearance of the temple, the young couple stood in awe for a long moment. Then realizing the error in their ways, they quickly moved aside to let Borrik enter the meager temple, that only months before, stood vacant of all life but his own.
     
    *****
     
    Borrik stepped past his master to behold the temple he had lived in for decades in a state of repair unlike anything he had even imagined before. Though the outside and entrance to the temple remained much the same, the underground temple had changed a great deal in the many weeks past. The area where there had once been a row of short pews to each side of the entryway was now free of furniture. To one side stood a modern statue of Ishanya seated upon a cloud, looking down serenely at her followers. Another depicted Borrik’s last visit to his temple and portrayed Seth in his black robes and Sara in her skin-tight leather. Borrik was there too with the twisted features he used to have after being melded with an orc. At their stone feet was a small woman holding up a dying infant in her hands. The scene felt surreal; Borrik could barely even recall the short time he spent as a human melded solely with an orc. How far he had come since then. The remaining statues were magnificently carved, each one in obsidian, each one representing the three most powerful players in Ishanya’s game. There stood Borrik in his current werewolf body, Seth in his spiked and hideous armor with mock bones protruding from the rib cage, and Sara in her body-form armor showing exquisite