Sister Ermine’s insomnia awakens her in the middle of the night.
She is desperate for sleep, so she leaves the church in search of herbs for her naptime tea.
Just as queen Chalyela arrives at the castle exhausted…
Sister Ermine finds what she needs to make her tea.
Suddenly she remembers that she sacrificed her naptime tea during her last quest. Does this mean that she cannot make it anymore?
In a panic, she hurries back to the church.
She approaches the cask…
…but cannot remember how to make the tea. Is that what her sacrifice meant…not being able to ever make her tea again?
Luckily a woman is there in need of prayer. Spending time ministering to this woman keeps Ermine’s mind off her tea.
She converts the villager to the Peteran Faith.
Feeling the Watcher’s spirit within her, Ermine relaxes on the bed.
She crawls beneath the covers as drowsiness begins to take over. The soft crackling of the fireplace gently lulls her to sleep…
And she is able to sleep until morning.
She uses some of the seeds that she found the evening before to make a seed stew. Sister Ermine is ready to begin her journey to improving faith within the kingdom.
Queen Chalyela rises the next morning after a peaceful sleep.
Before she begins her duties for the day, she decides that there is something much more pressing that she must do.
She leaves the castle and heads toward the clinic. She has decided to let Gavin know that she wants to end their relationship.
As she gets close to the clinic, she spots Gavin heading up the hill. Just seeing him almost causes her to loose her nerve.
She slows her steps to delay the inevitable for as long as she can. She cannot stand the thought of breaking her old friend’s heart.
