"Nari" "Common"
'Oh, I'm pretty sure Ionu doesn't favour me,' Sorla laughed, fire sparking from her mouth as she spoke. 'To tell you the truth Ionu and I aren't really acquainted. It's not that I know how to get around, just that I've learnt from hard experience not to trust anything in this city except myself.' Nevertheless, the decision seemed to have been made collectively that they were going to try and find somewhere to swim, and they wouldn't get there just standing around and talking about it while the fire in their bellies got hotter and the song in their heads grew more insistent.
Elin had offered to give the misshapen little man - she realised she still didn't know his name - a lift, which would certainly make things quicker. He seemed to be quite accident-prone and did not look as if he could walk very fast. She had to agree with his own judgement that he was probably not favoured by Ionu, and Elin didn't seem to think she was either... all in all they were not a very promising group as far as navigating Alvadas went.
'I have an idea,' she said. 'Why don't we let the god of chance decide what direction we should go in.' She took out a copper miza and held both hands behind her back, switching the coin from palm to palm until she was sure nobody else would know where it was. She held out both hands in front of her, fists clenched tightly. 'Guess which hand the coin is in,' she announced to whoever would want to choose. 'If you guess right, we'll go right. If you guess wrong, we'll go left. We'll do that at each crossroads we reach, and as we walk, let's all try and picture a cool, refreshing pool of water. If we don't find anywhere to swim before too long, we'll know for certain that Ionu doesn't favour any of us! Now would be a good time to pray, I suppose.'
She had deliberately avoided getting involved with Ionu before now - hopefully not so much that the god would be angered - but she simply didn't feel the need to worship such a fickle being. She preferred her gods to be a bit more straightforward. But she supposed that if she stayed in Alvadas, eventually she would have to acknowledge Ionu's dominance over the city, and now was as good a time as any. She wouldn't have dared trouble another god with as trivial a matter as finding somewhere to swim, but she thought the trickster god might at least enjoy sending them on a wild goose chase, and if they were lucky there might be a pond at the end of it.
'Ionu,' she began, switching back to her native tongue as she always did when praying. 'Sorry to bother you. This is more of an experiment than a request, really. Could you help us find somewhere to swim? I promise to worship in your temple tonight, if you do.' She waited, feeling awkward as she always did when finishing a prayer, as if half expecting an answer, and then turned to the group. 'Ready? She headed off in the direction indicated by the coin game, followed by whoever wanted to follow her.
