Devryn – Interlude 2 "Reverence"

Devryn – "Reverence"

I stood next to my father; his stern look held forward.  He smelled of incense and campfire smoke from the brief night’s rest before our early morning arrival.  His worn, leather glove engulfed my eight-summer hand with a gentle firmness I was not often afforded.  We stood quiet as the service to honor the passing of Matron Enbeyi settled into a lull after the string of mourning hymns.  The low hum of the hilltop breeze filled the spaces between us.

The mass of attendees was the largest I had seen for a final turn of the wheel gathering, if not ever.  Word must have spread among the nearby troupes, and then even further.  So many strangers, but yet acting as if a familial bond existed with their words and embraces.

Seviyorn, a troupe elder, chose a distant set of hills in the Banthatalik Plains for the site.  Among the violet-grass sea, a wagon wheel half-buried in a bed of pink and white wildflowers marked her passing so the gods could not ignore her memory.

The service came to an end with the murmur of voices whispering in unison their private memories of her.  I watched my father’s mouth move to quieted words as he shared his.  The heralding wind carried them off to the underworld, to the Valdayian Lands, the place of unparalleled beauty that awaits our return.

Enbeyi’s oldest daughter stood to the front in a crimson and yellow dress, her hair pinned up with silver needles and flowing ribbons entwining her two loose tresses.  Father said they were a traditional family, and her daughter was to adopt Enbeyi’s name.  The Perussians believed in the longevity of a family’s fortune can be gifted to them by the Fates, knowing that the thread cannot be cut if the name remains.  I could never take my father’s name; how could I ever be like my father...

“We give praise to the Fates,

Atashey for balancing the scales of duty.

Weh for the gifts bestowed with the soul-bound thread.

Datena for the eternal winds that carry their whims.

Laffandey for the hands that weave the quilt of life.

Woovorne for the reflection of ourselves and our family.

Curchuriv for the inspiration that fills our hearts.

Sessudrey for the prudence to cut what must end.”