Chasing the Suns

Proof is just a word

It took half an hour to walk back from the river to the abbey. I arrived back just as the horn blew for the midday rest, and everyone started wandering in the direction of the dining hall.

The idea of joining them, of sitting through more forced normalcy and banal conversation, was so abhorrent to me that I physically recoiled from the twin doors leading in. I turned on my heel and headed to the trainee dorm.

All the trainees slept in one long room, regardless of age and gender, with individual beds, cabinets and a wooden trunk each, all separated by an opaque folding partition of about head height. Mine was furthest from the door, the area bright and airy thanks to the massive warped glass window at the head of my bed. My clutter lined the windowsill; a few pebbles from the river, a bent and tarnished ring that I'd found a few suns prior, a floppy ragdoll that Mama had made for me before I was born, and few other random trinkets I'd gathered over time. For once, all my clothes were away, either in the dark wooden wardrobe, or in the trunk, and my bed was made, albeit somewhat sloppily.

I dropped onto my bed with a creak, face pressed into my thin pillow, and sighed, long and loud.

I didn't regret hearing Dawn's story, but I did regret lashing out at Lem. Unfortunately, I have always been a prideful creature, and apologising would be difficult.

I rolled over to stare at the arched ceiling and tried to think of nothing at all.

It must have worked, because the next thing I knew, Alyce was gently shaking me awake.

"Come on, it's time."

"Time for what?"

I asked, groggily, rising slowly from the haze of sleep. Alyce looked older than her eighteen suns when she replied.

"The funeral. To bury Ana."

We arrived, predictably, late. I sighed, thinking that at least Ana wouldn't have been surprised.

Everyone was gathered in the Farewell Hall already, a square structure with a high, arching ceiling and no walls, situated to the left of the Hall of the Ten. The Farewell Hall was traditionally used for graduation ceremonies of new Veneficas, after they complete their Voyage, a journey that is different for everyone, but typically includes a test of power and a test of moral self.

Theoretically, I knew the Farewell Hall was also used for honouring the deceased, but given the unusually long lifespan on a Venefica, typically over one hundred and fifty suns, compared to a human's eighty suns, I'd never seen it used so.

The rows of seats faced to the East for graduation passings, in the direction of the sunrise, to symbolise rising to the rank of a guardian, no longer a child, and all that goes with the rebirth.

On the day of Ana's funeral, the chairs faced West, for the sunset. The sun was past its peak and headed towards the horizon, bathing us all in it's warm glow, as Alyce and I took our seats at the back of the hall, behind Jay, Ster, Lem, and a few others.

I glanced around the hall, at the four pillars holding up the domed roof showing picturesque views of the fields and cliffs around us, and was surprised to see no coffin, no sign of Ana's body anywhere.

I'd been to two farewells when I lived with Mama in our village, one for a village Elder who'd died during a cold winter, and for a traveller who had arrived with an infected foot, and the disease took her soon after.

Both farewell ceremonies had included their bodies in boxes, which were then lit with a pure flame, called forth by one of the village Elders with some minor fire casting skills. After one night there was nothing left but ash, which was scattered on the lake. I knew Ana's farewell would be different.