Dearest Zann,

So a few days later I was back in Candur’s office while Srix and five other guards took their Rosolla Guard oaths. Or, rather, I brought them there, and then made an excuse to get away as quickly as I could.

I didn’t write about taking the oath myself, back when I first joined. That’s because I didn’t take it.

The problem is that the oath asks you to swear by the mysteries of Yskere. And I don’t know the mysteries of Yskere, because I don’t belong to the cult of Yskere. Yskere is the patron goddess of soldiers. All soldiers, if they’re serious about it and not just a farmhand carrying a spear because someone told him to, are supposed to join the cult. So I got recruited when I was in the army. All very secretive. Fellow named Smanick took me aside one evening and explained the basic idea.

First you get piss drunk. Then Smanick takes a paste of ground-up herbs and rubs it on your eyelids. Then you put your head in a box and Smanick and a couple of other soldiers bury you alive, not too deep, and they blow some kind of smoke into the box. And Yskere comes to you and shows you her mysteries, which are, I think, secrets about life and death and blood and sex. And you’re there overnight. In the morning Smanick digs you up and you’re in the cult.

So I did all that, but the problem was that when Yskere came to me, she was angry. “Never!” she shouted. “You will never learn! You’re no soldier; you would betray your comrades in an instant! I don’t know what you are and I turn my face from you!” And disappeared from my mind’s eye. It scared the drink and smoke right out of me and I lay there shivering until the morning.

Nobody ever asked me about it. Smanick was supposed to, but the Sugarsiders made a sortie that morning and he was killed. Everyone assumed that I was in the cult, but I wasn’t, and I’m sure not going to swear an oath that I am. From what I understand, it’s normal for warrior orders like the Rosolla Guard to require that their members all be sworn to Yskere. I just have to hope that it’s never important. And that Candur never finds out.

I wish I could say that I didn’t understand why Yskere was angry at me. But I do. Oh well; as long as I’m in the palace, that’s the important part.

Oh, I should mention that the other guards who joined this morning included three that Fafafa had sent me to. There was Akinis the Rider, Red Mallot, and Trrle Two-Flags. All three were very friendly and easygoing, had done a lot of this kind of work before, and seemed like they could kill me with a rosepetal at sixty paces.

Love,

Ybel