"Oh," he says, stopping. "I. Yes. I do."

He relays the schedule, trembling all the while. Get up in the morning, do whatever task Maeverine set for you the night before or the morning of. Then, breakfast. If there is no task, there is no breakfast. Then, training in the courtyard (one of the places he pointed out to her) for several hours. He doesn't expand on what that means. Pray to Maeverine. Then return to your room, complete whatever studies you've been given, prove to Maeverine that you understood the studies themselves. Then, dinner. Then, pray to Maeverine. Then, courtyard, again, then bed.

He does not mention free time.

Agh, this would be so much easier if she could just write it down. Memory, don't fail her now.

"So do I go to the courtyard or pray now?"

"Pray. Your first day's, different, than the others."

He's trembling.

Well, hope he has good luck with whatever he's trembling about. Ellie getting involved in that is not something that is going to happen. She thinks she's made a favorable impression so far and doesn't want to mess it up.

She heads for the altar room.

The boy turns and goes to what's presumably his room, failing to stop himself from sobbing pathetically. He made a mistake. He's going to have an unpleasant few hours.

The altar room is small and free of people; it's a different one than the one she saw earlier. It's less impressive, but not unimpressive. More - intimate. Private.

When the door closes behind Ellie (it is weighted to stay closed) the room is almost completely silent. Maybe the room is soundproofed.

That's probably bad. Ellie goes to kneel in front of the altar.

"Maeverine. Thank you again for the strawberries. I still think your temple is neat. The schedule you have sounds really busy, but I can keep up with it. It'll be easier for me to do that if I don't end up like that boy. Was he just bad at following directions?"

"And not very bright. I think you will do much better. Don't disappoint me."

"Yes, Maeverine." That probably counts as enough of a prayer, right? Ellie stands up and tries to open the door.

It opens without any trouble. That probably counted as a prayer.

Oh, good. Maybe she's getting the hang of this praying thing. Now, what was next...? Courtyard or room? Ellie thinks back to her room, so she heads in that direction.

There are more books waiting for here, there. One seems to be about history. Another, geography, and another about math.

Joy. In absence of other directions, Ellie will start with the history book.

It is exceedingly dry, and very detailed.

This would be so much easier if she could take notes. Ellie will have to remember to ask Maeverine for paper next time she prays. She sticks it out for about forty-five minutes, then switches to the math book, just to see what it's like.

The math book is a bit kinder. It seems to be aware that its material is dense, so it spaces it out a bit and is a more gentle introduction to the concept of dividing numbers by other numbers and getting different numbers out of it.

Okay. That's cool that you can do that. Doesn't seem to be immediately applicable, though. What about geography?

The geography book contains a lot of maps, but most of them aren't particularly recent; each map has a year dating it at the bottom. They seem to be in chronological order. Gods' domains are neatly color coded and labelled, and thick black lines denote the borders of countries. The country lines occasionally move from year to year, but it's the god domains that really change. Proverbial ground that's lost or gained, with many gods as comparative brief flashes before their domain shrinks and they are removed from the map. There are only a few that really stick around - Cartalomir's the largest and oldest, but Opedist and Raezenoth are both very stable, border-wise, and there are several more minor gods that seem like they haven't overextended themselves.

It's possible to find Maeverine on the map, along with the god that was responsible for the mountains Ellie passed over. It seems he died a long time ago, and the area's been empty of gods until Maeverine. Varkalosix, an ocean goddess, seems to be her closest neighbor. No information but the name and domain is provided.

Ooh, maps. Ellie flips through, watching the borders change.

...Can she cross-reference the events described in the history book with any of these?

She can!

Is she looking for something in particular, or a general history lesson with the maps provided as visuals?

She wants to use the maps as visuals. Maps are easier to remember than words. If she can stick the words to the maps, that might make it easier.

There are parts in the history books that aren't written up in map form; the books tell of a lot of minor gods fighting over small domains and smaller tribes and generally causing trouble, and writing hadn't been made common yet. Most of what's known is hearsay. Apparently destructive gods that ruled by terror were more common, but after several gods (Opedist was the first, and Cartalomir, Raezenoth and a few other (now deceased) gods came after) decided to focus on taking care of their followers, things began to stable out and being a menacing plague god fell out of proverbial style. Turns out: people are more willing to worship gods that treat them well, or at least leave them alone instead of constantly causing them trouble.

Some of their strategies are interesting, as are the results. Cartalomir took over most of the mapped continent slowly but surely, and has the largest domain on the continent. He seems to have gotten where he is by being boring but dependable. Rains over harvests, roads where people want them, good healthy grass for livestock, decent but not fantastic climate, food on every table, and the god stays out of mortal affairs as long as people don't cause too much trouble. Opedist seems to have a similar type of tactic, with less focus on slow expansion and feeding people and more focus on stability and leaving people alone. It's the place to go for people that want to not have their geography change, apparently. Raezenoth's a bit more interesting, and his domain borders change more often than his peers, but the tactics he uses aren't expanded upon in the book. It vaguely talks about self reliance and, quote, 'desert winds,' but otherwise glosses over it entirely.

The history book talks about other gods, but with less of an expansive history behind them, it's (mostly) hard to see if the strategies of those still alive are working or not. There's a nearby decay god that seems to be on the out, a hunting god that seems to be in a similar situation, and Kalandax's strategy of trying to kill Opedist doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Other conflicts are less clear - it's hard to tell if Varkalosix will manage to kill Raezenoth while he's distracted with the dying hunting god, and many of the various flavors of minor god are hard to predict.

Oh, and there's country history, too, but that's a bit more straightforward than what appears to be a divine free-for-all that takes place over centuries.

Ellie has a suspicion that Maeverine is less interested in having her learn the history of mortal countries. She focuses mostly on the gods. When Ellie can pin events to specific maps, she does so, otherwise she tries to at least figure out where things happened on the continent. She also makes a note to look out for more information on this Raezenoth, whoever he is.

Reading about the gods' strategies is interesting, now that she has a way to visualize them. The math book is going to be neglected for some time.

The math book will suffer this indignity.

Time for meals is marked by a bell that rings throughout the temple (breakfast appears to be different in some way, or Ellie was spared it because it was her first day) and the schedule seems to be pretty apparent by watching where everyone else goes, even if Ellie has trouble remembering her instructions.

After lunch comes the courtyard. There, Ellie and the others are... told to run laps around the courtyard. Their instructor is not very forgiving of 'but I'm tired' as an excuse. As such, if they don't keep running, she rolls her eyes and raises her hand and shocks them, as a reminder that they should not stop until they collapse.

Ellie's not the first one to try to stop, and after that display she's not the second.

She tries as best she can, but she's still seven and running is not her strong suit. When she drops down, she doesn't get back up.

She gets a brief shock to see if this will persuade her to move some more.