"The Calling" by Travis W. Herring

"NO! I forbid it! You shall NOT leave this house heirless! You were born for this duty, and it is to this duty that you MUST adhere!" Djehutinefer Sepret was outraged and his voice betrayed his fury. His daughter, sole heir to his principality and power in the Three Kingdoms was turning away from her blood right!

The young woman in question stood before him, adorned in the uncolored linens of a monk of Isis, head bowed, hair already in the tonsure that showed her allegiance. Simple sandals covered her feet, her only ornamentation that of the ceramic ties her mother had given her upon her coming of age ceremony.

"You have no choice, Father," Kvis Sepret said quietly. "I have already taken the vows."

"Then you will retract them!" Djehutinefer screamed. "Where is your mother!? Does SHE know of this!?"

"She does not," Kvis whispered. "It is not her life, but my own. The Goddess calls to me and I answer. I wish nothing of the power you offer to me. I abhor it and the politics that come with it."

Djehutinefer moved forward, reaching out to grasp his daughter by the arm, but she was too quick. The paired monks to either side of her stepped forward, between him and his daughter. "Step back," he said gutturally, "this has nothing to do with you."

"What the Goddess wishes is our business," the young man to Kvis' left replied, staring at her father evenly. "Your daughter has chosen her path. You have no right to deny the Goddess when the Goddess has chosen. Would you upset the Way?"

"You cannot DO this!" Djehutinefer yelled, eyes on his daughter. Tears came unbidden to his eyes. "We have no other heirs! You doom the Sepret line and power to NOTHING, do you hear me!?"

"I care nothing for your line or power," Kvis replied softly, eyeing her father. A man she had little to nothing in common with, hating every minute she had been forced to sit at his side, "learning" the hideous, dark ways of politics, the vile poison that is power working its way throughout their culture.

Djehutinefer stepped back, head lashing backwards as if he had been physically slapped. "You cannot be my daughter," he said quietly, hissing the words. Shock rang throughout his body, his eyes wide. "My daughter would never do such a thing!" He staggered back, hand clutching his chest, eyes pinned on hers.

"I have no daughter!" he yelled, shaking his head. "I have had no child! Strike from the records any mention of Kvis Sepret and her allegiance to my family line! I have never had a child!" He staggered, tripping over the ornate folds of a cloth-of-gold tapestry hanging along the sides of a pillar, eyes still on hers. "You are no child of mine, Kvis Sepret! You have stolen the life's blood of the Sepret line and doomed us to ignominy! I will see you no more! You do not exist! Ghost! Haunting! Demon!!"

Djehutinefer clasped his robes to his chest, ripping them in anxiety and anger. In the distance, the sound of rushing robes and sandals on the marble floors told of Kvis' mother's swift approach.

"We had best leave," the monk to Kvis' left said softly. "You have no home but for that of Isis now."

"Yes," Kvis Sepret, once of the Sepret Principality, said softly. "My home is with the Goddess, now."

Turning, the trio of monks left the Sepret home, leaving the cultured gardens, the marble halls, the cloth of gold, and the hundred slaves who supported and kept it all presentable. Kvis Sepret, child and heir was no more. By the end of the day, the name of Kvis would be removed from the records of the Sepret family. Djehutinefer would die childless, according to the family scrolls, and the Sepret line would be continued by adoption.

--

"You have been with us for how many passings of the season?" Satdjehuty, Priestess of Isis and head of Kvis' order sat in the throne in the main hall of the monastery, arms on either golden lion's head, several feet above the floor.

"Almost ten, Lady," Kvis replied quietly. Her hair, tonsured the day of her taking of the vows and uncut since, hung to the floor around her, honey blonde curls surrounding her as she knelt. Her head was bowed, her eyes on the worn stones before her.

Everything from physical training to eating, to the study of the Goddess was done in this hall, before the Grand Throne of Isis, where Satdjehuty waited and watched. The woman was old, ancient even when Kvis had been born. Some said she was a living avatar of the Goddess Herself, and she spoke with the power of a Goddess born. Kvis dared not meet her eyes, for this would be sacrilege and cause for immediate banishment from the monastery. And, as all citizens knew, banishment without a family means swift death.

"You have learned well, Kvis Sepret. Your studies have seen you come far since your entrance between the Golden Doors of Ra."

Kvis dipped her head slightly. "The Lady is kind," she whispered.

"You are to follow your heart now, Kvis Sepret. The Mother Goddess has declared your needs to me. You are to carry the knowledge of Isis to the outside world. You are to bring the light into the darkness; to show the world what it means to worship Isis."

Kvis almost looked up, catching sight of the Lady's feet and robes before catching herself and turning back to the stones before her. Surprise written in every feature, she restrained the gasp that tried to escape her body, eyes wide as she absorbed the information. Isis had answered her prayers!?

Kvis had long since come to the realization that within the monastery walls was no place for her. Her choice to come here had been born of distaste for everything her father represented in her eyes; sycophantic power mongering, with a total disdain of morals and ethics.  Now, wanderlust ruled her thoughts and dreams, a need to see the outside world after having first taken her into the path of the heart and mind of a devotee of Isis. The Goddess' priests and priestesses could be seen walking the streets of the Three Kingdoms, representing her glory, passing on her knowledge, helping where they could, defending those in need where possible, and doing whatever it took to keep the heart and mind of Isis in the people's thoughts. It was HER turn to do this!

"You will leave here, never to return," the Lady said softly from her throne, pulling Kvis back from her train of thought. "You will never see those within these walls again, unless it be by accident along the road during your travels. You will be given what you require to defend yourself, offered a small amount of coin to start you on your path. After this, you will depend on your wiles and the gifts of the Goddess to make your way.

"This is not a pleasant thing, Kvis Sepret. This, I know of personally. Travel throughout the realms is not easy, nor are our kind seen kindly in all places. You will find hardship, pain, and possibly death in answering the Goddess' call. But you will find fulfillment in doing Her wishes. Know this, and be thankful."

"I will, Lady," Kvis whispered. Years of silence had worn her voice to a soft purr. She nodded slightly, overcome by the magnitude of what was hers to fulfill. Satdjehuty had just acknowledged that she had not always been sitting there!  What WAS she, if not the Goddess?

"You will leave the Three Kingdoms," the Lady whispered. "You might never return, unless the Goddess wills it. Keep Her in your heart, Kvis Sepret, and know that, even in your darkest hour, She will be with you, waiting to take you to her breast and reward you for a lifetime of service."

"Blessed Be," Kvis replied ritually. She stood, keeping her eyes downcast, seeing the Lady's robes and sandaled feet, all anyone ever saw of her in person.

"Go now," the Lady whispered. "And know that I will be with you no matter where you be."

---

Two weeks. Fourteen days had carried Kvis to the outermost edges of Nubia. The world waited just over the rise, the last stone watchtower rising over the rolling fields and vales of the borderlands.  Ahead, the desert of the Nubian warlords lay.  Her challenge had begun.

Her last meal was behind her, and her last Kingdom soldier had been waved away from a sexual rendezvous she had no interest in. A virgin, she would die that way, unless the Goddess told her otherwise. The ways of the flesh were a distraction from the purity of the Goddess. Kvis was focused, and ready to move on. Setting her javelins properly in her belt, she hitched the high leather boots she'd been given up around her thighs, hiked her pack of gear up higher on her back, and set off down the trail, into the unknown.