"May the goddess and her superiors guide you."

Sarakaske didn't immediately stop assisting in the temple, but as the month came to an end, she carved out time to spend a few hours alone in the principal shrine of the temple, praying to Erecura.

Lady Erecura, thank you for sending a priest of Yours to Westcrown. Thank you for guiding me and my father through him, and thank you for providing an example of a woman who can rule and hold herself strong and independent among more powerful men of Hell. Thank Lord Dispater for guiding my father by His example, and leaving me both strong and cared for.

I will leave your service soon, and go to negotiate a marriage and begin a family. But by your example and your service I will be able to negotiate more as an equal, a party to the agreement and not just a piece being moved and traded between men. For this I am grateful, and I promise I will offer you prayers and thanks for it for many years to come.

May I watch wisely and thrive, as may all others who follow you.

And then she feels a sensation of crashing into a steel plain, then standing upright and proud. Of growing things spreading out from the point where she landed. Of a dozen enormous minds pressing down on her, but standing unshaken in the storm of attention. Of accepting a hand offered, and sitting above a palace in judgment.

And she felt a connection to a reserve of endless knowledge, and a sense of herself that wrapped around her and secured her soul against all intrusion. And a sense of new things she could do, just out of reach in a direction she could not previously sense.

And she knew she wasn't leaving Erecura's service after all.

"High Watcher?"

She almost always just calls him 'Watcher'. And he wasn't expecting to talk to her tonight.

"Yes, Sarakaske?"

"I prayed to Erecura thanking her, and, um, I think She chose me."

"Hmm. You know, that surprises me less than I'd have thought. Do a light?"

"I don't think I have it? Two things for an allied person, and I think detect magic."

"One of those on me, then."

She picks the one that feels more peaceful and taps his hand.

"Yep, that's guidance. Congratulations, Watcher Sarakaske."