This story takes place about twenty years ago, four years before Temmin was born, at the Sister's Temple in Tremont. The reference to being a "daughter of Farr" isn't literal; Ibbit is not a demi-goddess.

"Ibbit! Come back!" It was Carra--no, Carro, thought Ibbit bitterly--but she didn't care; she kept walking firmly down the path back through the neat rows of medicinal herbs toward the Temple of Venna. "Ibbit! Please!" She could hear Carro's postulant robes swish, closer and closer behind her, until finally a hand reached out and touched her shoulder.

Ibbit quickly whirled and knocked the hand away. "Don't you dare touch me, pretender!" she hissed. "I loved you, Carro, I loved you! And you did--this!"

"Please don't call me Carro," the other pleaded. "My name here is Carra. And I didn't do anything, Ibbit, this is the way I was born. I can't help that, and I still love you!"

"You can take a woman's place," said Ibbit, advancing, "you can wear a woman's clothes, and you can even take a woman's name, but you are not a woman! How dare you--how dare you!!"

"I thought you knew!" said Carro, tears finally spilling down. "Everyone here knew! You know there are male-born Sisters here! How could you not have known I was one of them? Look at me!" Carro gestured with large hands. "I don't have much of a beard, but I do have to pluck it out--I have a Farr's Knot, for the Sister's Love!" He patted the small but definite lump under his chin on his neck. Ibbit fought back the angry mist that filled her eyes, for those were all things she'd loved about her--his--body right up until their tryst in the garden.

"Why aren't you serving Farr, then? You'd do well at the Warrior's Temple," Ibbit spat.

"As a servant, not a healer," he answered angrily, "and a second-class one at that--and besides, I don't like men!"

"Of course you don't like men," she shouted. "I don't like men! No one likes men! Men don't like men!" She resumed her determined walk back to the Temple.

"Is this about your father?" said Carro, realization dawning on his soft face.

Ibbit stopped but didn't turn around. "I don't have a father," she grated.

"Everyone has a father, Ibbit," Carro said, voice full of sympathy. "It can't be helped who yours was."

"Using our confidences is a dangerous game, Carro. I tell you I don't have one," she said again, dangerous and low. "Don't say it again."

"Ibbit," said Carro slowly and deliberately, "It's not my fault you're a daughter of Farr." Ibbit whirled on Carro in a fury and slapped him hard across the face. Carro dabbed at the blood on his lip. "It's not my fault your mother didn't want that soldier and took it out on you." She slapped him again, harder, and the split in his lip tore further. He spit out blood and smiled grimly. "It's not my fault," he said softly, "your mother was raped in the war."

Ibbit fell on him, screaming. "I'll kill you! Fucking pissboy, I'll kill you!" Carro never stopped smiling as she rained blows down on him, not when she blacked both his eyes, not even when she kicked him repeatedly in the groin. Her screams brought Sisters running from seeming everywhere; it took four of them to pull her away from Carro, who was lying unconscious on the ground, the smile still plastered to his pulped and swollen lips. Ibbit shook in the Sisters' hands with fury and shame.

"What's amiss?" came the voice of the Eldest Sister. "Ibbit Postulant," she gasped, "what have you done?"

"Only what should be done," she cried angrily. "No man should ever violate this Temple! Ever! No man should ever set foot past the Hearth! No woman will ever be safe until we have our own place in this world, apart, divided like the night and the day! And deep down you all know it, too--it's why you're here!!" Her voice was raw from shouting.

The Eldest Sister set her mouth in a grim line. "Take Carra Postulant into the wards and see to her."

"Him!" roared Ibbit in a mix of grief and anger. "Don't lie to yourselves, he's a man, and he's just as bad as the rest of them! Farr lives in all of them!"

"Take her inside and lock her up," sighed the Eldest Sister. "We'll see to her tomorrow." The Sisters muscled the raving Ibbit into the Temple and down the steps to the basement cells.

"Sister Annika of Leutefloss was right!" her voice floated up. "Penetration is murder! Patriarchy must die!"

"Annika of Leutefloss," said the Eldest Sister to her aide with a shudder. "I thought her death would end her heresy. I fear it is not to be so."

"What shall we do with Ibbit?" said the aide, walking with the Eldest Sister back to the Temple.

The Eldest Sister shook her head. "I'm unsure. Perhaps some time away from the Capital. She needs to be isolated from the other followers of Annika and set back on the path."

The aide pursed her lips. "Is that all? She did beat poor Carra pretty badly."

"We can't turn her away," said the Eldest Sister firmly. "We need to get her away from Carra, to be sure, but she is a talented healer and we shall need her in years to come. One slip should not decide her fate."

"Perhaps we should send her to Sister Magda at Whithorse. Talented midwife, and a righteous, devout Sister."

"And there are no male-born Sisters there. You make a good suggestion, sweetheart, you always know how to advise me," said the Eldest Sister, patting her aide's cheek.

"May I make another one?" said the aide, capturing her hand. "Let's go to bed." She kissed the Eldest Sister's palm. "I'll make sure we have an extra blanket, it's going to be cold tonight."

"That's why I have you," said the Eldest Sister as they walked inside.