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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3249772" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-twenty-two, “Off to Church“, Sunday June 11th, 1882After Minerva leaves the grove and goes back to her house, Jake makes his way home as well and finds no difficulty falling asleep. Having no reason to rise early he intends to sleep late on Sunday.At the Lazy-S Ranch, Emily was already awake when there was a soft knock on the door followed by her Uncle's voice. "Emily? Are you awake?" She yawned wide and pushed herself up. "I'm awake."  He says, "We'll have to leave early to get to church on time. There's a bit of breakfast downstairs." With another yawn Emily dragged herself out of bed and got dressed in her Sunday best blue dress. Her other clothes she put back in her bag and carried it downstairs with her to breakfast before they left for Promise City.Emily's trunk was placed atop the stagecoach. Two horses were tied to the back, one being the horse the Ellen pointed out belonged to her father, the other being the one that Emily had ridden the night before. Emery Shaw explained that the coach would be returning to the ranch and the horses would be stabled in town for them to use whenever they wished. The ride to town went quickly, with Emily spending most of it looking out the window and taking in the various countryside. They reach and intersection indicating the town of Dos Cabezas is to the left and Promise City and Galeyville to the right. Shaw explains that Dos Cabezas is up in the mountains of the same name and was primarily a farming town populated by wood elves until most recently, when silver was found and a new mine is in the process of being established. The community now has a mix of elves, half-elves and humans. He explains that Galeyville is on the opposite side of the Chiricahua Mountains, a dozen miles beyond Promise City. It was once a thriving silver town but the mine played out and the town died. There are now more buildings there than people, and most of the remaining people are outlaws and drunks who view the ruins of that community as their own haven. He says there is minimum contact between the two towns due to the fact that the Apache reside in the mountains in between. They ride is mostly east and southeast in direction, crossing a bridge over a creek at one point. He says "That's Pine Creek, it flows into Promise City a few miles further down and is the town's main water sauce. The creek originates in the Dos Cabezas Mountains and is also fed by tributaries that start in the Chirichaua Mountains. The creek itself flows west as is the main source of irrigation for our Lazy-S ranch. It ends ten miles further west at the Bar-W ranch owned by the Shaw family." The road turns southward and they pass a small mountain to the left and hill to the right. The road soon reaches the community of Promise City, coming in at the northeast corner. The town is comprised of around two-hundred buildings which are mostly made of wood but several dozen of which are made of brick. The carriage rides down Fremont Street, which he says was named for the previous Territorial Governor. They pass a few buildings then ride through the intersection of Fremont and Sierra Streets. A fancy building with the sign "Palace Saloon is on the southwest corner of the intersection. The southeast corner has a building with a sign "Papago Cash Store" that has corral full of horses beside and behind it. Next on the left is a small building with the sign "Promise City Post Office" and small building on the right that says "Morand-Seawell Mining Company". It is followed by a larger building that the sign reads "Fly's Boarding House" Shaw points out a building beyond it that is the Hoover Memorial School where she will be attending classes starting the next day. They pass the intersection with Main Street which runs for four or five blocks west, with her seeing Pine Creek at the far end. They pass another building with a corral that reads "Bar-H Stables". They there as that is where the two horses will be boarded. Immediately south of that is "Weller's Blacksmithing". Across the street are the "Promise City Town Hall", "County Claims Office" and "Promise City Marshal's Office." While her Uncle Emery is taking care of the horses she sees a wood elf wearing a badge enter the Marshall's Office and a few minutes later a human wearing a badge departs heading north. The carriage resumes its journey, turning west onto South Street. She sees the "El Parador Cantina" on the southeast corner of the intersection with the "Great Western Boarding House" on the northeast corner. Three adjacent two-and-three story brick buildings run along the southern side of South Street between Fremont and Allen Streets with the signs "Rixton's Furniture", "Gilson's Bath House" and "The Comstock House". They stop in front of the last building where Emery says they will be staying. While Paul and Abner deal with Emily's luggage Emery escorts Emily inside and introduces her to the owners, Russell and Beatrice Lee.   Emily states, "Good morning, ma'am, sir," she said politely, still distracted by all the new sights and sounds. She was still thinking of the large grove of trees that was very close to this house, and how small the town really was. It might just be impossible to feel trapped here. As Abner and Paul brought her trunk in she added, "Thank you for letting me stay here."Emily is shown by Bea to her room which is adjacent to her Uncle's while Russell Lee updates Emory as to what has transpired in town during the last 24 hours. Once they return downstairs he says to her, "It's almost time for church, we should be heading off." The Lees get their things to go to services as well.Emily put her straw bonnet back on and tied the ribbons under her chin. She had little idea of the pretty way the bonnet framed her face, but she knew it hid her ears. That bothered her a little bit, but she also kind of enjoyed the idea of the shock it might cause when she removed it. "I'm ready Uncle," she said in a cheery voice and took a place next to him for the walk to the town's little church.The walk to the church isn't far. The building itself is built to accommodate just under 100 people and nearly that amount are present. Emery says to Emily "A lot of people are here because the Territorial Bishop is running the service, others are here because they are running for office and want to be seen by the voters as religious prior to this week's debates." His observation is indeed correct, as most candidates for office are present. All seven candidates from each of the Integrity and Law and Order Parties are present. With Shaw's arrival all Unity Party members are present except for Manuel Escobar. The Freedom party is represented in the room by both Burton Lumley and Steve Lord and the Liberty Party is represented by both Denny Guerin and Hamilton Fisk. Shaw points out his rival for Mayor and whispers to Emily "This is the first time he's ever shown his face at a worship service."Well that's silly," she whispered back. "He's not going to fool anybody into thinking he's been devout all this time. He'll just look like someone who blows with the breeze."   Emery replies, "He's sly like a fox though, he'll explain his presence here today being because of the Bishop."  A group of clergy arrive. In addition to the Priestess who Emery tells Emily is the town's priest the Bishop and his Aide come in followed by another male priest and a female dwarven priest. They head up to the front of the Church and motion for the congregation to be seated.At the Marshal’s Office, Chet is relieved by Eduardo who tells him "Go and get some rest before Church. Mitch says that you, Helen and Neil should all make sure you're seen there if you want to have a chance at getting this town to vote for you. You attend regularly anyway don't you?"Chester holds back a yawn and nods. "I'm there every week. The gods provide, so it's not a hassle to give them their due. I realize a lot of the movers and shakers in town go to church regularly, so being seen will be good. Thanks for the reminder, though. last night some masked riders threatened that dwarf who's running for mayor. They blew up his shed and killed a couple of his mules to boot." He pats Eduardo on the back. "I'll catch you later. Hope things go quietly." Chester slowly walks back to the Lucky Lady. He waves at people who pass by on the street. He climbs up to his room and changes into his bedclothes. It seems that no sooner than he lays his head down that it's time to get ready for services. Chester shaves and washes his face. He puts on his Sunday best and walks to the church. Clarisse is already there, so he sits in the pew next to her. "Good morning, dear."  They head off to the service. "That's an awful lot of priests for one small church," Emily whispered as they sat. Then she closed her mouth and paid attention to what was going on in the front.Chester idly looks around, trying to tell which candidates are there. When the priests motion, he breaks off and brings his attention up front.  Bishop Costas Papandraus introduces himself as the Deputy Administrator of the Greek/Roman Church in the Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah Territories. He says that his superior has granted him full authority over matters in Arizona. He steps forward and states "I came here this week to meet with my priests and provide them training as we did last two months ago up north in Flagstaff. But we all received far more than each other's company, we were witness to a miracle, as Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt made her presence known to us. Artemis is known by many names, the Romans called her Diana. She is also known as The Great Goddess, The Lunar Virgin, The Mother of Animals, The Lady of Wild Creatures, and The Huntress. She was originally worshipped on the mountain Taffeta near Capua and in sacred forests and it is here in these mountains that she returned. She first made her presence known to us when Hilldi" He then gestures to the dwarf, "Was attacked by a monster up in the hills. The creature was vanquished but Hilldi was near death. Artemis was her patron deity and she had said a prayer to her prior to the hunt for this dangerous creature. Artemis appeared and saved her life. The next morning she appeared again, here in this very building, to make pronouncements to us all. She stated her wishes to the priests present, that Father Barnes will serve in the nearby town of Dos Cabezas, that Priestess Minerva Florencia will continue to serve here in Promise City and that my assistant Demetrius Theopopulos will travel to Athens to serve the Patriarch. She also gave instruction to myself and Elizabeth Eaton, another devoted follower of hers." Nearly every head in the room turns in the direction of Mrs. Eaton.What kind of place have I landed in? Emily turned her head toward the lady everyone else was looking at. Maybe Diana actually heard me when I said hello last night she thought and pushed down a laugh.Chester grimaces when the Bishop mentions what happened to Hildi. She was under my protection and she almost died. Luckily Artemis brought her back. I wonder what Mrs. Eaton's going to do that the goddess singled her out.The Bishop continues, "She had good wishes for all of us and this community. The Goddess has blessed your town. I ask that you all do what you can to make her proud. This is an awesome responsibility and one which I can count on you to follow through on. During my stay here in town I have been following the newspapers and see that you have an upcoming election. The names that you have chosen for your political parties, Freedom, Integrity, Law and Order, Liberty and Unity are all great virtues. If your candidates are able to live up to the ideals that you have chosen as your party names then this will indeed be a place that you can all take great pride in."Emily took another look around the room. None of them looked all that extraordinary, but something must have drawn the eye of Artemis here. But she was also the Mother of Animals; perhaps it wasn't only the people who drew her attention. Emily smiled. There must be a great deal out there in that countryside.When morning came Kate dressed for work at the ranch as she was to take Austin Blake out after services. Once she was ready she and Ginnie went back to the El Parador looking for breakfast.  The place is quiet, not surprising given the previous night's festivities, as Dorita serves them up one of her usual breakfasts. Ginnie comments "A few were in here earlier but left for the church services. It's unusual to have this place to ourselves.""I imagine those who didn't go to services are sleeping in after last night's party," Kate said. "I like it when it's quiet and we can relax with no one to bother us. Sometimes there is just too much going on. I would like to hide for about a week."  Ginnie replies, "Not this week, with the election heating up we're in for a roller-coaster week. What do you think of the planned debates?"Kate says, "The first one will be quiet, which might be a good thing. Mrs. Barker sometimes goes overboard when she gets fired up. Without anyone to really egg her on she'll seem like the most spirited and involved person without showing her more colorful side. The other nights might have more yelling than real debate. That's unfortunate; I'd like to see what ideas some of the candidates have for the town. The candidates that can keep a positive mindset and show how they're going to help the town grow and prosper will do better than those who are just campaigning against someone else. At least I think so."Ginnie replies, "Well Ma'am Kate, you are involved with the Unity Party and they are with all of the debates. Explain to them what needs to be done and let them take the leadership roles to keep things civil. That will show them what your party is all about."   Kate answers, "Me explain to them? My opinion hardly carries that much weight. But I suppose a word or two to Emery Shaw about keeping the debates moving and preventing those shouting matches won't hurt anything. And I've suggested it before, but a reminder about having positive goals isn't out of place either. I wish I could think of something beside trying to get the trains here."Ginnie replies, "Shaw has some grand ideas of his own. He has in mind making Promise City the cattle capital of North America. He thinks the mining life is short-term but wants to maximize the flow of cash into the community while it lasts to create an infrastructure to sustain the town well into the next century.""He's right about that, no mine lasts forever. No matter how successful it eventually plays out. But he'll have to be careful not to offend the miners, they're a very large part of the community here. He'll want to work out a suggestion between balancing mining, ranching, and other businesses like Von Zeppelin’s. He'll have to convince the miners that they might want to stay here after the mines are empty and enjoy what they helped build. And that there will be a place for them."Ginnie replies, "He's a man of vision. Did you know that he was the one who came up with the name Promise City? Elton Hubbard wanted to call the town Silverbell, after his mining company. Kate Higgins suggested the name Sunset. It was Shaw who saw this not as a town but a City of great Promise and he swayed some of the other founders, including the Condon brothers, Lumley and Fisk, to name it that."  Before Kate can reply there is the sound of a loud explosion.</blockquote>

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