Post by Lisa on Dec 14, 2009 15:36:37 GMT 10
Title: Prayer
Prompt #3: Candles
Summary: Owen dedicates the morning before his Ordeal to a memory, recalling the reasons he wanted to become a knight.
Lord Wyldon gave him the day to himself. It wasn’t completely uncommon, but being a squire during war time was something completely different from peace-time training. Owen hadn’t really had many days to himself since he became Wyldon’s squire.
But today – the most important day of his life so far – he was free to wander, to think, to pray. He would spend much of the night praying in the Chapel of the Ordeal, kneeling before the sun disk and asking Mithros to guide him. Today, however, he sought out someone else’s help.
It was shortly after dawn when he made his way to the Goddess’s Chapel. It was smaller than the chapel dedicated to Mithros, even though they were worshipped jointly in Tortall. The priestess and her acolyte paused to study him, wry smiles on their faces. Squires weren’t well known to them.
Halfway down the length of the chapel there was a small alcove filled with candles. The symbol of the Goddess - three phases of the moon – hung above them. Owen went to them, lighting one candle before he knelt in prayer at the main altar.
I haven’t always had time to thank you, Great Mother, he prayed. Mithros has been my guide in war, and that is where my heart has been for three years. But my entire reason for becoming a knight is because of one of your followers.
He gulped, remembering that warm autumn day that his mother did not return. She had been helping the local midwife, and they had both been attacked by bandits while they were riding out to a distant trapper’s cabin. He was an eight-year-old boy at the time, and had suddenly had to face the prospect of a life without his mother’s kind words, her fairy tales at bedtime, or her goodnight kisses.
Ma was everything to me, Owen continued, his eyes heavenward. She devoted her life to doing your work – helping the women in the village, using her meager Gift to ease pain and help bring babies into the world. She died because she did work in your name, and her death is what shaped me. I want to continue fighting, and I want to help people in need. It was my Ma who showed me what it means to be a knight – as much as, if not more than Lord Wyldon. It was Ma’s memory that convinced me to defy my knight-commander and help a friend in need, and help children and villagers in need.
I don’t know much about the afterlife, but I know that if Ma could be helping women and children and the poor and the hungry wherever she is now, she’s doing what she can. And while I’m here in this life, I’m going to do the same. Even if I’m not a knight, I will do your work, Merciful Mother. Guide me, and I will make you proud.
He lowered his eyes and whispered, “So mote it be.” And for a moment he thought he felt a phantom kiss upon his brow, a kiss that made his worries fly away for the briefest of moments and made his soul feel light.
Prompt #3: Candles
Summary: Owen dedicates the morning before his Ordeal to a memory, recalling the reasons he wanted to become a knight.
Lord Wyldon gave him the day to himself. It wasn’t completely uncommon, but being a squire during war time was something completely different from peace-time training. Owen hadn’t really had many days to himself since he became Wyldon’s squire.
But today – the most important day of his life so far – he was free to wander, to think, to pray. He would spend much of the night praying in the Chapel of the Ordeal, kneeling before the sun disk and asking Mithros to guide him. Today, however, he sought out someone else’s help.
It was shortly after dawn when he made his way to the Goddess’s Chapel. It was smaller than the chapel dedicated to Mithros, even though they were worshipped jointly in Tortall. The priestess and her acolyte paused to study him, wry smiles on their faces. Squires weren’t well known to them.
Halfway down the length of the chapel there was a small alcove filled with candles. The symbol of the Goddess - three phases of the moon – hung above them. Owen went to them, lighting one candle before he knelt in prayer at the main altar.
I haven’t always had time to thank you, Great Mother, he prayed. Mithros has been my guide in war, and that is where my heart has been for three years. But my entire reason for becoming a knight is because of one of your followers.
He gulped, remembering that warm autumn day that his mother did not return. She had been helping the local midwife, and they had both been attacked by bandits while they were riding out to a distant trapper’s cabin. He was an eight-year-old boy at the time, and had suddenly had to face the prospect of a life without his mother’s kind words, her fairy tales at bedtime, or her goodnight kisses.
Ma was everything to me, Owen continued, his eyes heavenward. She devoted her life to doing your work – helping the women in the village, using her meager Gift to ease pain and help bring babies into the world. She died because she did work in your name, and her death is what shaped me. I want to continue fighting, and I want to help people in need. It was my Ma who showed me what it means to be a knight – as much as, if not more than Lord Wyldon. It was Ma’s memory that convinced me to defy my knight-commander and help a friend in need, and help children and villagers in need.
I don’t know much about the afterlife, but I know that if Ma could be helping women and children and the poor and the hungry wherever she is now, she’s doing what she can. And while I’m here in this life, I’m going to do the same. Even if I’m not a knight, I will do your work, Merciful Mother. Guide me, and I will make you proud.
He lowered his eyes and whispered, “So mote it be.” And for a moment he thought he felt a phantom kiss upon his brow, a kiss that made his worries fly away for the briefest of moments and made his soul feel light.