"Huh! I wonder what I am. Is going by this bulletin board a good way to meet an angel or should I do it another way, do you suppose?"

"Usually angels are just around Heliopolis. If there's a place a lot of people walk, you sometimes see an angel just standing there. If we see one on the way to find Marduk's temple, that's the best way. If not, we can ask some people to pray for an angel to come with us- they're more likely to come if lots of people are thinking about them and asking the gods for them to come. Hollyphants are harder to find because you have to go to places where they are and those aren't in this part of the city, so if you want to talk to them we have to go to them."

"I don't know yet if I should make a particular point of meeting a hollyphant, though maybe I should. Okay, let's hope we run into one on the way."

They do not run into an angel on the way, precisely. They do see one flying overhead-

-at which point Daernir stops to pray about this, to no avail; the angel keeps flying.

Daernir sighs and keeps walking.

"It's pretty."

"Yeah. They're all like that. Archons are different because they don't look like people. Some look like dogs, and others are just light- they can be pretty but it's not important. But angels always look pretty."

Daernir evidently decides their current course is not likely to lead them to a temple to Marduk, changing direction suddenly.

"See that, above the other buildings?"

He points out a series of spires in the distance.

"I think that's a temple to Marduk; other temples you can't usually see from further away, although it could be Heru-wer's."

"Okay, let's check!"

As they approach, the building's design reveals itself to be almost entirely spires and points. It looks downright spiky, and not particularly welcoming, except at the front, which is a fairly normal door.

Inside, they can see hundreds of people sitting at desks with paperwork everywhere. Most of them don't pay any attention to the newcomers.

One of them does take notice! He walks towards them from his station a few feet to the side of the entrance.

"Welcome, visitors, to the temple Marduk. How may he be of service?"

"Hi! I just read Marduk's book Just Experiment! and I have some questions about how much of its contents apply to mortals' attempts at governance."

"He must be happy to hear that. Please, come sit."

He leads them over to one of the occupied desks, waits about three minutes, and in that time the desk has been cleared and the person who had previously sat there carries their things and heads towards the back of the temple. He holds out a chair for Lintalai. It is the only chair at the desk, so he goes to stand opposite her.

Daernir hovers nervously. He hates temples because they contain priests and not a single priest he's ever met made him feel like he was talking to a real person with real thoughts and not just a very confused hand of a god. It makes his skin crawl.

Lintalai sits. "See," she says, "I want to find a way to bring over more people from my planet, and colonize some of Arcadia. There are billions of them and they don't have magic and the only species of people they know about is them, so they're used to managing themselves. I heard the Harmonium doesn't intervene in god-realms, but is that because they're god-realms, or something else?"

"The Harmonium would not interfere in a place that made laws keeping them out, but most do not. Marduk disapproves of their desire to interfere. It would be better to experiment with laws until they can discover the ones which are best for their people, rather than inviting external enforcement. Gods' realms are unusually well-protected, but they also have their own ways of punishing crimes. Most settlements in Arcadia don't have anything, without the Harmonium to help them."

"That makes sense. I don't know how long it will take me to bring Amentans here law enforcement at all but I think I don't really want the Harmonium involved even while I'm still working on that."

"Marduk will not assist in protecting your settlement, because that would interfere with your independence and the purity of your laws. If you want to find people who will defend you from Harmonium interest, I would suggest looking in Ward. That is the only settlement in Abellio which has never taken Harmonium support for prosecuting its laws."

"The Ward! Okay. What can you tell me about them?"

"They pride themselves on having the fewest laws in all of Arcadia: besides the laws against murder and theft, which are plane-wide, they forbid invading someone's personal space, battery, and necromancy."

"Seems reasonable, and probably enough to manage with while I'm mostly working on attracting enough spellcasters to get Amentans here. Can you tell me how to find them?"

"You will need to find your way back to Abellio, as I don't believe they exist across the layers as Marduk does. You can travel there through Marduk, if you do not know of an easier method of travel. He would be glad to meet you."

Daernir really doesn't want to follow this priest to another town across the desert just to get back to Abellio, since they can just use the same portal they came through if they find an aarakocra or something.

"That's very nice of you to offer. Lintalai, do you want to visit?"

"Sounds good to me. Do you think Marduk or people in his domain would be interested in learning things about Amenta?"

"There are always some people interested in hearing of foreign places. Most who would want to meet you would be interested in learning how you changed your hair color so easily, if not by our magic, or in what kind of laws Amenta has. Marduk would avoid you, but not for lack of appreciation."

"Why would he avoid me?"