Ellerdine

Ellerdine stands earliest in the tithe book of all five shrine villages, one of the two entered at its very opening, which places its settlement before the priory's records began. Like the others it is an interior place, unwalled, beyond the blockhouses and away from any maintained road. It sits where two old ways cross, though neither now leads anywhere, and less than a mile from ground the district avoids.

It is the most welcoming of the five and takes in strangers more readily than its neighbours do. Its shrine is kept in the common fashion, a stone structure in repair, furnished on set days by the household whose turn has come, and the village will describe the turn, the days and the offerings to anyone who stays a while. As in every shrine village, children here learn the observances long before they can account for them, and visitors speak of good food, singing after work and well-kept gardens.

Its hospitality has one hard limit. Twice Ellerdine has asked an incumbent not to come back, on each occasion because he had preached against the shrine, and on neither occasion with any other rudeness. The priory's visitation book gives each in a single sentence and adds nothing. The village is equally firm with curious guests: it will not say what its shrine is kept for, and after two pleasant days a visitor generally notices he has not been told.

Of the five, Ellerdine is the easiest for a company to visit on foot, and the kindest. Keep any sermons to yourself, ask about the observances rather than the bargain, and do not go poking toward the avoided ground nearby; the village will give its advice once and will not repeat it.