"Perhaps it always will. Some mistakes we can't erase, not with all the gold or diamonds in the world, and all we can do is keep going despite how they weigh on us."

He closes his eyes to face up at the sun, thinking about his own misdeeds.

....Headshake.

She doesn't want to be the kind of person it doesn't bother.

They sit in silence. A cloud covers the sun, casting them in shade, then passes.

"The dawn brings new light," he says, with the cadence of a prayer. "Each new day is an opportunity, a promise from Sarenrae that things will get better, here or in the afterlife to come."

Sure, from Sarenrae and not the natural order of the world, or the harmony of forces dancing that happen to have produced the current situation.

Oh, shut up, sarcasm brain.

"Well... Haaah. Sarenrae seems nice. If you guys need guarding or illusion services I could be moved to help maybe."

"The festival of Burning Blades isn't far off, illusionists are always welcome for adding to that spectacle," he says, brightening. 

"As for guarding, few Evildoers would ever dare to attack a temple of our goddess," the halfling says with pride. "Though if some of our faithful should need defending beyond this sanctuary, how should you be contacted? Shall I introduce you to the high priestess so that they know you for a Sending?"

He guesses that would be more reliable than expecting an adventurer to have a fixed address.

"Ooh, a festival. That would probably be easier than what I was imagining! Which was receiving messages at the coin priests' place. Weiss Faron, by the way."

"Ranik Brogan," he replies.

Ranik describes the goddess' festivals as they walk and wait, the ceremony where hundreds of worshippers dance with blades dipped in burning pitch and the mystery plays recounting her role in the defeat and sealing of Rovagug.

The high priestess is a busy older woman with darker skin than most of the locals, paging through a holy text to prepare the sermon for before the sunset channels as she receives the pair.

"Weiss, was it?" For a moment, she stares at her, then blinks, apparently enough of an impression to use the spell later. "How dangerous a guard duty would you accept, if we were to call on you?"

Huh. So at that festival maybe she'd be adding SFX and music and lights to a play? Something that might merit a rehearsal. Sounds fun.

"I'd rather not die but it'd be more a lich than a petty necromancer that'd do it. And I probably can't stick around forever, but chances to help in efficient high-impact ways are surprisingly hard to arrange, so, yeah! In fact, I'm probably after one of those later today. Petty necromancer, that is. I've fought a Gargantuan magic centipede before and that took a full party and army backup to finish if that helps calibrate."

She seems busy. 

(Most languages of Golarion of course have distinct terms for each of the size categories and an accepted ordering of them, because in a world where people can encounter giant predators ranging from horse-sized to taller than most trees it is much more important to have the words to quickly distinguish those.)

That puts her at around the high priestess' own level of might by her reckoning, fourth or fifth circle.

She nods and returns to her sermon-planning - she is busy - but offers them some candied orange pieces to take with them as they go. 

Yummy! 

She'd like to hear a bit more about Burning Blades from Ranik so that she's not working at cross purposes if she ends up illusing for it? Whimsy has its place in art but she doesn't want to crash someone else's festival.

Then he'll happily recount the usual order of events, spending the day in fasting and prayer, dancing with the ceremonial weapons as the sun goes down. There is a whole elaborate choreography to allow for dipping them in pitch as the sky darkens, and then the high priestess will light hers from the temple brazier, the flames spreading out from her as the whirling blades brush against each other until the whole crowd is banishing the shadows of night. 

"It's not as dangerous as it sounds, everyone's already spinning with their arms out fully so they can't reach much further even if they trip, and the ceremonial weapons are mostly blunted," he adds, in case that's a concern.

"Do you think dancing firelight in the sky would help the effect without disrupting things?"

"That sounds pretty, do you think you could make the wisps of flame rise up from the dancers' blades or make a pattern in the sky?" 

He'll excitedly suggest a few symbols of Sarenrae that could be displayed in the firelight: The sun, the dove, the ankh, and some of the constellations of the Cosmic Caravan if the skies are clear. 

Oh, that might be tricky for others but she bets she can do it, animating nice symbols in glowing fires rising from the festival... Especially if she goes and gets that headband.

"-I think I know what I wanna do between now and my appointment, is go back to the Abadar people and get a writ of me being good for 1600 platinum so I can try on the headband and see if it really would help as much as I think. I mean, it sounds like a lot so I'm not sure if I am truly good for it, in fact. Thanks for the chat and introductions, Ranik, I think I'm off for now if there's nothing else?"

It might mean she doesn't get around to seeing what life in the slum-y bits of town are like, but it doesn't really feel wasted.

...It's nice to be able to walk around and only get 'adventurer' looks instead of 'kitsune' looks.