Each season has its incense: myrrh in the spring, bergamot in the fall, sage in the gloaming. In the winter, pine. When the trade routes to the south were open, wealthy churches like ours in Braga, and perhaps this one, would be burning ylang-ylang in the summer; but I was to find out from my fellow soldiers that lavender and cedar were the summer scent in most churches—the more expensive herb only grew in far Axa, or in parts of Old Kesh now under Hordelaw. As a duke’s daughter, it had not occurred to me that the gods would smell differently to the poor.
