At the Temple of Parvai
High Priest Dhalbeeta was exhausted, it had been the busiest day she had ever seen, or heard of for that matter. She had to call a meeting of all the priests so they could plan out how they were going to handle services tomorrow. People were camping out in the street outside the temple so they could be the first for morning services. She looked around the room, her exhaustion was reflected in the faces of all the fellow priests. Everyone had worked as hard as they could just to keep the crowd moving.
Dhalbeeta's throat was raw from the constant prayers for hours without end. It had started as a trickle at first, but that quickly turned into a flood that didn't stop. Everyone had been talking about one of their priests, but there were so many of them she couldn't keep it straight in her mind. They needed a plan to handle the crowds tomorrow, but first High Priest Dhalbeeta had to find out what had caused this insane flood of visitors to her temple. She looked at her worn out priest and sort of addressed the group at large.
"So, what brought all of this on?" she croaked. An adept brought her a warm cup of honey tea, it felt so good on her soar throat. One of the priests who had been trying to control the flood at the doors spoke up.
"I heard everyone talking about 'The Hero of Rata'. They had apparently beat up a street gang and a crime boss single-handedly. The only description I could get was that they were wearing Parvai's tiger armor."
Dhalbeeta's eyes widened in realization. There was only one person that the Hero of Rata could be, their little Devshi. She had received the occasional update from the Mahapratanidhi, but this was so out of character for her it had to be someone else. Another priest added their observations.
"Some of the reports said that she was with a Zwergin from Grundhorn." By Parvai it was Devshi. She had been sent with representatives from the major nations to gather support for what is supposed to be an upcoming war. What was Devshi doing back in Alkhadraham? It didn't matter right now, she had more immediate concerns.
"Okay, how much did we need to spend on incense today?" she asked dreading the answer.
The Paiva Rakhna1 looked in his book and winced, he was famous for treating the smallest expenditure as a personal insult. "Two Raja2, and three more on food." He continued looking at his record book, his brow furrowing deeply as he did his mental calculations. Dhalbeeta leaned forward and put her head in her hands. As nice and tiring as this day was, it was a disaster. How were they ever going to get out of this debt? They were going to have to close the temple. The Paiva Rakhna made a little 'huh' noise
"What?" Dhalbeeta asked, fearing that it was even worse.
"According to my math, we still have just over four Raja. Yeah, four Raja and 249 Dalara."
Dhalbeeta's head snapped up, exhaustion for gotten. "How much?"
I'm sorry, correction, "Four Raja, 247 Dalara, 3 Aurata, 6 Mora, and 16 Yodha." Everyone in the room had forgotten their tiredness and sat up and stared as the Paiva Rakhna read from their book, one of the younger monks actually fell out their chair in surprise. His math was famously accurate. It was said that people used him to calibrate their abacuses, which was a ludicrous statement but he took pride in it anyway.
If Dhalbeeta had been sipping her tea it would have sprayed all over the room. That was more than the temple normally made in a year! Almost twice as much. Not only were they were going to be able to afford rent this year, they would be able to have the carved front of the temple painted again, and have the dilapidated doors to the dormitory replaced. A couple more days of this and they would have the most money the temple has ever made in it's history.
Dhalbeeta closed her eyes for a moment to say a blessing to Parvai for Devshi, sweet little Devshi. May she know happiness for a thousand years.
High Priest Dhalbeeta's mind shifted into high gear as she started issuing orders, newly reinvigorated priests and adepts leapt to fill them out.
"Bharma, go to the incense vendor and make a triple order. Let him know we might need another one next week. If he's asleep, bang on his door. I don't think he will object to this order." Bharma jumped up and was out the door in a flash.
"Hadyha, go to the market and buy up all the cala3 you can. Janak, since you do most of the cooking go with her and get everything you need for tomorrows meals and offerings." Both of them ran out the door excitedly.
"The rest of us, let's get this place clean and ready for tomorrow. I know we're going to be beyond tired tomorrow, but I want to be ready for tomorrow's flood." Priests and adepts jumped up to get their various duties taken care of as soon as possible. Tomorrow was going to be a epic day for the temple.
The next day everyone met in the same room to find out what the days profits were. They made the first day's monies look like a paltry sum. Dhalbeeta was beyond excited, they were going to be able to expand their food service for the poor. Heck, they were making so much money it didn't matter if they were poor. Anyone who came to the service got fed, and fed well.
They had triple the amount of volunteers they usually did which made the day much easier to deal with. They even had a large group of teens ask to join the temple, they wanted to be like their hero Devshi.
The day after was even busier as news of Devshi's exploits spread, to hear it Devshi had single-handedly eradicated all crime in Kishnagar. The next couple of days showed no sign of letting up. One day Elder Kushwa came to High Priest Dhalbeeta holding an old scroll, Dhalbeeta recognized it as the temple charter. He showed her that when the temple was originally founded the priesthood served as a form of neighborhood watch because the guard hadn't been setup yet and it was still in the charter. Dhalbeeta thought that was a brilliant idea, going back to the temples roots at a time when the world was uncertain and the people needed direction in their lives.
"That is a most excellent idea Elder Kushwa." she praised. She started a wry grin as an idea came to mind. "We shall call them "Devshi's Tigers".
1Paiva Rakhna - Literally "Keeper of the Money". The title used for the bursar of any temple in Kishnagar. They are responsible for tracking all monies coming in and being spent.
2Raja - The highest form of Kishnagari currency with the Yodha being the lowest. 20 Yodha make 1 Mora, 10 Mora make 1 Aurata, 5 Aurata make 1 Dalara, and 100 Dalara make 1 Raja.
3Cala - The Ardu local equivalent to earth rice.
