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It was a modestly-sized chamber, by Warrenhold’s standards. Maybe twenty or so people could fit in here without feeling cramped, and the old rainbow tiling had been cleaned up and refurbished entirely. No more cracks or fissures. Now they had a polished sheen to them.

The rainbow color had been relegated to only one wall, however. After having thought about it for a while, Hector came to the conclusion that maybe some of the folks interested in shrines as places of spiritual peace or meditation might not love having such a “loud” display of color surrounding them on all sides. Maybe, instead, they would want some plain walls that they could decorate as they pleased.

But for this particular shrine, he’d been focusing his research on the Rainlords and their history, not just their old religious views. It was his understanding that many of them were no longer spiritual in the slightest, so he wanted this to serve as a place of historical value to them, as well.

Hopefully.

So there was a table full of candles and bowls for burning incense. There were chairs and floor mats and tall poles for advanced meditative exercises. And there was also a large water basin in the center of the room with a long-necked, brass faucet curving around the top of it, releasing a slow, timed drop of water every three hundred seconds.

That last one, according to a few of the reapers, was an ancient fixture of their Luthic religion, meant to represent how Lhutwë, the God of All Water, created every single drop that had ever or would ever exist.

And it looked pretty cool, Hector thought. So he was glad to see a few of the Blackburns’ faces light up when they saw it there, especially some of the reapers who’d told him about it but not seen it yet.

Sentsia was all praise and laughter, which Hector was glad to see, but Nere, unfortunately, remained the same. Still with that somber, glazed-over look in her eyes as she silently took in the view.

Hector couldn’t be too disappointed. He understood.

But there was still one more thing to be revealed. He’d saved it for last because he’d thought it would make for the best surprise, and yet, now that he was about to pull the tarps away, he found himself suddenly hesitating as he wondered if this wasn’t about to go horribly wrong, somehow.