Free Mistress of the Night by Don Bassingthwaite, Dave Gross

test of faith, it's torture, chaos that divides temples and turns sister
    against sister. Even in a faith so tolerant as Selune's, when heresy rises, all of us feel the upheaval."
    "Mother Dhauna...." said Julith in soothing tones, but Dhauna brushed her away.
    "What must be stirring now," she asked Feena, "that the Moonmaiden herself moves to warn us about it? Feena, believe me, whatever heresy grows in Moonshadow Hall, we have to stop it. We have to..."
    She sighed and seemed to sink in on herself.
    "Dhauna?" Feena gasped in alarm.
    The High Moonmistress shook her head and replied, "I'm just... tired. Selune's warnings take their toll." She cast her eyes over the books in front of her, then turned a tired gaze on Feena. "I need to get back to work. A tenday, Feena. I'm sure of it. You'll stay?"
    Feena nodded, numb.
    "Good. Tell no one about the dreams, Feena. Even if you're defending me."
    "I won't, Mother Dhauna," Feena promised, but the old woman was already turning back to her books.
    A soft touch on her shoulder drew Feena's attention. Julith stood beside her. The dark-haired priestess shook her head and silently gestured for Feena to follow her.
    "That's the best she's been in two days," she said as she led Feena back to the archive door. Julith glanced back over her shoulder at the pool of light that surrounded Dhauna. The High Moonmistress was gingerly unrolling a scroll that seemed ready to crumble at any sudden movement. "I'm worried, Feena. She's becoming obsessed with heresy. What if there is no heresy?"
    "You mean, what if she's truly going mad?"
    Julith held out her hands, helpless, and replied, "I don't know what to think. Sometimes I would say yes, but the books and scrolls that she asks me to fetch, the notes that she makes—there's a method to them, I'd swear it."
    "There are things to be seen by moonlight that sunlight cannot reveal," murmured Feena. It was a favorite saying among the followers of Selune. Sometimes the
    Moonmaiden's insights could be more than a mortal mind was capable of dealing with.
    But sometimes the saying was just an excuse.
    Feena gripped Julith's hand and said, "Let me know if it gets worse."
    "I will," Julith replied. She returned Feena's grip—and drew her into a close embrace. "And you come to me if you need to. I'll help you however I can."
    Startled, Feena stiffened, but then relaxed. There was a genuine warmth in Julith's voice and embrace.
    "I will," she said.
    "If you need to be alone," Julith added, "I can tell you how to get rid of Velsinore and Mifano."
    A smile spread across Feena's face and she stepped back.
    "No, that's all right," she said. "I think they're done with me for today. But you're right. Some time alone is what I need."
    When silence finally fell over Moonshadow Hall that night, Feena, wearing her own blouse and homespun skirt once more, slipped out of the chamber that Velsinore had reluctantly assigned her and down to the temple's kitchen. At the back of the big room there was a stout door. Feena murmured a prayer to Selune that nothing had changed substantially since her days as an acolyte at the temple, and drew back the door's heavy bolt.
    The door swung open on a small kitchen herb garden built onto the side of Moonshadow Hall. Feena closed the door behind herself and stepped through the dew-damp beds to the wall that surrounded the garden. A squat, weathered pillar that might once have been a statue was right where she remembered it, if a little mossier and a little more deeply sunk in the ground. She stepped carefully on top of it and reached up.
    As an acolyte, she had just barely been able to reach
    the top of the wall with her fingertips. Now she could wrap her hands securely over it. With a quick hop and a little straining, she was up on top of it then slithering down into the shadows on the other side. An alley nearby formed a conveniently private niche. Feena slipped out of her clothes and tucked them into a bundle in a corner. Then she closed