The cross-legged ghaele seemed meditative, but reacted with a calm awareness as Kassina entered. She nodded, "I am indeed the same who contacted you. Sharess's kisses you to too, lady Kass or, hmm..." she appraised the nicely garbed and yet revealed body of the dancer as she stood, an even six feet, with the ribbons stretching and sliding sensuously across her own metallic copper body. "Miss Kass, if you prefer." She approached the bardess to deliver greeting kisses to each cheek. "My, but you've the look of youth about you, though at no doubting or discredit to your reputation, I should add. Much younger looking and 'twould surely be considered depraved scandal for one to take personal liaisons or liberties with one such as yourself." The ghaele's narrow nostrils flared a bit, as if becoming aware of the particular scents which now clung to Kass.<br/><br/>"Yet that is not why I beseeched your presence - more's the pity. I am Saturnia, a creature of Brightwater and priestess of the Dancing Lady. Yet the artifact I spoke of exists - or did, when last it was where it ought be - in the Prime Material Plane, from a temple in the oasis town of Siwa, in the old arid empire of Mulhorand. I will apologize if you would not have answered my Sending knowing that, but a Sending is by nature limited in its number of words. If this dissuades you not, I keep prepared a a spell which can planeshift you with precision, and I cannot imagine that any priestess at the temple with sufficient command of magic to planeshift you back later would not be happy to do so."<br/><br/>"As you may know, Sharess was once of the Mulhorandi pantheon herself, and known as Bast, patroness of dancing, cats, and...the other things she still is to this day. The artifact itself, though I've never seen it myself, I understand to be a statue of Adon, a champion of<em>Sune</em>several decades ago - notably, during the Godswar or Time of Troubles, when gods walked the earth. The Dancing Lady nearly fell under the sway of or was subsumed by the Nightsinger, the dark goddess whose usual name I care not to say but which you likely know, and was rescued from this by Sune. Although I don't know the precise nature or origin of this statue, I gather it symbolizes this bond, and the priestesses see it as a reminder of the care one must take on life's branching paths."<br/><br/>"If stood in a date tree grove outside the temple, and its power or one of them, I understand, is that priestesses and other village girls believe that a heartfelt performance of fellatio upon the statue -which stands erect, one might say - is a boon to one's health. I have by Sending<em>to</em>me been made to understand that within the last day, one or more girls found her attentions upon the statue gathered no such divine favor, and that when the statue was more critically inspected, and its auras of magic divined upon, it was determined a forgery, a copy."<br/><br/>A new, less musical and more wry voice answered, "Perhaps to give the thieves more time before their deed was noticed." One of the other bead curtains parted as a redheaded lady stepped through; she was older than Kass to be sure, but did not yet seem fading in face or bodily poise with age. Her hair was more of a crimson color than the orange-red of many redheads, her eyes were a catlike hazel. Her outfit was a rather drab charcoal-gray-black which hugged her body to aesthetically and perhaps acrobatically convenient effect.<br/><br/>She studied Kass a moment, with a smile that widened subtly as she drank the sight in, and introduced herself, "Pardon the belated introduction, I was, ah..relieving myself, and had only just arrived a few minutes before you, and from the sound of things up the hall, Saturnia has told you now about exactly what she had told me."<br/><br/>Saturnia said to Kass, "or those I sent Sendings to, it is you two and one other who have replied in the affirmative either by the Sending-reply itself or showing up. That third is the wizard Faebion. He arrived first, was told what I just have told you, and excused himself to of the back chambers to cast some sort of information-gathering spell. He said the casting would be ten minutes, which should be about done now, plus a bit more while he makes use of the cast spell." The ghaele gestured down another of the bead-curtained archways.<br/><br/>The redhead listened, then smiled again at Kass, "I was just about to go check on him again. Without interrupting, of course, just looking....it doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes," she grinned like a cat. "I am Aria, currently based in Sune's quarter and with, suffice to say, intimate connections to her faith although my own goddess dwells in another plane entirely. I've been an adventurer or agent most of my career - my methods and contributions to my church and previous parties thus far mostly sneaking and scouting about, bypassing locks and other mechanical inconveniences, knife-fighting or trading arrows when I have to, that sort of thing."