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Well, we had to do some shopping after all the excitement -- why else go to all that effort and risk?  We started out slowly, by watching other people shop.  I decided that we would have to bring more pennies from home -- they were worth a lot more here.  I could make my allowance stretch forever!

We bought some meat pies and shared them with our animals.  They were hot and good and spicy.  Also, my cat can tell if something is a little tainted or poisoned, and it didn't hurt to be careful.

The hawk and cat watched our backs for us, but that didn't stop my purse from being grabbed.  But my cat knocked the thief down before she could get away.  She pulled a knife, but quailed when she looked at us.  I had gotten hard and Ariel was really cold.  The guard captain was right there.  Guess he could spot thieves faster than we could.

"Is there any problem"

"Well, I'm just trying to keep this young girl from making a very bad mistake."

"Oh?"

"I don't think she would like the result if she opened that purse."

"Really ..."

Then Ariel looked at me -- "is that the same surprise that caused your father to blow the roof off your house?"

"Yes, but my Mom promised me it was safe as long as I didn't let anyone else open it up."

The thief turned paler still.  "I must have made a mistake" she said, and then dropped the purse and fled.

Well, after all the excitement, we ended up with some pretty stones and some thread.  Ariel is always looking for just the right thread for her rope.  We decided that instead of spending the night in town, we would get back to our boat and put off from shore -- just a little -- so that we would be invisible, but not far enough out to run into anything dangerous.

We pulled out from the dock and then, as we floated downstream, decided that the old, abandoned guard tower was the place to tie up and camp.

It seemed perfect.  It was obvious that nothing had been there for a long time.  Lots of undisturbed dust, a great hole in the roof, no tracks anywhere.  In the middle of the top floor of the tower was a great seven pointed star -- in absolute white. Kind of muted, but bright anyway.

I don't know what possessed us, but we both touched it.

I know.  I had a long talk with my Mom about it afterwards and I'll never do something like that again.

I could feel the power flow out of me and the link form with one of the star powers. It was a high fire, all light and no heat, and that shrine (which had been the heart of the guardpost) had not been used for a very long time.  The longer they sit, the easier they are to trigger.  The wards had failed or we wouldn't have been able to touch it.

Starcalled Falcon is the closest I can come to its name.

Luckily the price for the shrine wasn't more than we could take and we recieved power and knowledge back.  Of course we also received limits -- stronger than geas.

Now we can't drink any alcohol.  It burns like flaming acid (so much for Nyquil when I've got a cold).  If I had been one of of the mountain dwarfs the price would have near to killed me.  As it is, my parents don't drink and neither did Ariel before the price hit us.  I'll be more careful.  Some prices are heavier (at least from my point of view) -- things like use no fire, or be untouched by cold (one of those would have really hurt either Ariel or myself), never using a cover, never eating eggs, and other limits.  Apparently the list is about endless of what might happen.  Often they are things that affect some people more than others (e.g. never wear metal armor, never commit certain crimes I don't even want to think about).

Some of the gifts are pretty neat, but many are worse than some of the geas.  I mean, who wants to have their skin always burning, their eyes always casting light?  Could get a job in a freak show, if you could survive it.  Mom thinks that one is neat -- it is a favorite of her people, and the geas is a little thing -- always eat all foods raw.

We searched the place after that and found two rings, one for each of us.  They kind of glowed at us after we touched the star (and after we both got what looks like a fine lined tattoo in white -- a seven pointed star on the left cheek).  Mom says that such marks and such rings were used to mark initiates -- those who had been tied to the power.  Wearing the rings (and they are very pretty.  Seven strands of white metal, bright and almost hair thin, woven around each other and around seven seven pointed starts that look like they are made from opals.  The stars are tiny.  When we wear the rings we can see like it was broad daylight as long as there is as much light as a single star casts, and in broad daylight it is like we have sunglasses on).  Mom has me set up for helping at the soup kitchen with Ariel, seven times a year.  Aside from making sure that we serve barley soup, and use plates with a seven pointed star (easy enough with the way you can order paper plates these days) it seems like isn't that different from anything else.

We slept well.

Afterwards, we decided it was time to go home.  I figured we should both talk to my Mom before we did anything else and she kind of put us straight.