Maidaladan

[inthetapestry]

Character Perspectives:
Jaelle
Kim Ford
Diarmuid dan Ailell
Arthur Pendragon

NPCs Possible:
Loren Silvercloak
Shalhassan of Cathal
Sharra of Cathal
Gereint of the Dalrei
Aileron dan Ailell
Dave Martynuik

And Kevin Laine.  (Oh, Kevin.)

Please post a ficlet with your character's (or NPC's) take on the situation in the comments of this post.  On the evening of March 21, I (or someone else, if anyone wants) will compile them into a single entry (an example of the style to be used can be seen here) and will post to the bar.

Deadline:  March 21st, 2007

Thanks!

--Aspen.

Comments

[most-generous.livejournal.com]

In the quarters he has been given (the finest in Gwen Ystrat, except for those of the high priestess Jaelle), Arthur Pendragon feels the call of the Goddess.

Arthur refuses it. The danger of producing a son or daughter in this fertility rite is too great, and any child of his might be pulled into the unravelling of Arthur's destiny. After all, he has been cursed for the children, and for love.

Arthur locks his door, so that no woman might enter to test his resolve. Restless, he paces his quarters all night.

He is still awake just before dawn, when the priestesses begin to cry out.

[inthetapestry]

It's Maidalaidan. And there's a girl that Dave wants, and he isn't going to get, because she picked Kevin Laine, like everyone always does - and that's okay, Dave thinks.

Because, you know, he either saved Kevin's life or half got him killed this afternoon during the boar hunt, and he might not be sure which but either way . . . they're good, the two of them. The last of that old lingering resentment's slipping away. True, Kevin's the one in the limelight again, cracking jokes and eating boar testicles and earning public acclaim, but hey, he's the one who got gored by the damn boar earlier, he deserves it.

So when Kevin makes the obligatory wisecrack, Dave laughs with the rest, and when he sees Liane dan Ivor picking her way towards Kevin after the feast, he turns away without envy, or at any rate without much of it. Kevin Laine is always going to spark brighter than everyone else around him, and that's just the way it is. You get used to it. And - as was proven, he guesses, by that ridiculous old-school boar-tackle earlier today - Dave would kind of miss the guy if he wasn't around.

Anyways, it's Maidalaidan. There's plenty of acolytes around eager to celebrate the holiday, so to speak, and Dave doesn't go lonely that night despite the absence of Liane dan Ivor.

There's no loneliness at all until just before dawn the next morning, when Dave is awakened by the acolyte in his bed, who jumps up, weeping. Runs out to the stables, all the while crying, "Rahod hedai Liadon! Liadon has died again!"

Dave follows, still confused and muzzy from sleep. At first, he thinks that it's all just part of the ritual, but a look around tells him that it can't be - there's real grief here, unexpected grief. Real joy, too. The chant echoes in his ears all the way up as he follows the train of people to Dun Maura - Liadon! Rahod hedai Liadon! - and with each repeated cry, Dave grows more and more uneasy. More and more on edge.

He doesn't know why until he hears Diarmuid ask, in tones of sharp disbelief, "Where's Kevin?"

And it seems that he hasn't saved Kevin Laine's life after all.

[first_of_dana]

In the Temple, Jaelle wakes. She sits bolt upright in bed and waits. A moment later the sound comes again, and this time she is awake and there can be no mistake. Not for this, and not tonight. She is High Priestess, she wears white and is untouched, because there has to be one so tuned to the Mother that is the cry goes up it will be heard.

(There is irony, perhaps, that virginity is called for to be that closely tuned to the Mother of all, but it would be lost on Jaelle, especially tonight, with the cry ringing within her.)

Again it comes to her, the sound she has never thought to hear, a cry not uttered for longer than anyone living knew. Oh, the ritual has been done, has been enacted every morning after Maidaladan since the first Temple was raised in Gwen Ystrat. But the lamenting of the priestesses at sunrise is one thing, it is a symbol, a remembering. This is something infinitely otherwise.

(Infinite in a way that only death can be, she thinks. Only death and, she realizes, love.)

This is the mourning for no symbolic loss, but for the Beloved Son. Jaelle rises, aware that she is trembling, and still not quite believing what she has heard. Bit the sound is high and compelling, laden with timeless grief, and she is High Priestess and understands what has come to pass.

(What, though not how. Not yet. And still she struggles to let go of the word that comes in the wake of this grief. Impossible.)

She makes her way, barefoot in the unnatural cold of this Midsummer night, to the dome, behind the altar and the axe. The axe that only the High Priestess can lift, and that she lifts now, with both hands, before bringing it crashing down on the altar. Hugely, the sound reverberates, and she waits for it to end, to die back into stillness.

(It is the first sound she’s heard since the cries that woke her, the first to come from without rather than within this night.)

And when the stillness returns, she rends it, as she has rent her robes, with the words that echo through her.

(“Rahod hedai Liadon! Liadon has died again!”)

She weeps, she grieves with all her heart, and she knows every priestess in Fionavar has heard her, that they are coming here now from their sleep in the Temple, to find her here, her robe torn, the blood on her face drawn with her own nails, the axe lifted from its rest.

(“Rahod hedai Liadon!”)

It grows, it spreads, the Mormae begin to rend their robes and faces in that same wildness of grief. Jaelle scarcely notices, just as she scarcely notices the acolyte who brings her cloak or the fear in the eyes of the men in the Temple, or the question Kimberly, the Seer of Brennin, asks of her.

“Jaelle, who is it?”

(Liadon. Beloved Son. The sacrifice come freely on Midsummer’s Eve.)

“I do not know,” Jaelle answers. “Come!” Her horse is brought, and she goes, without waiting, though the streets of the town as the lights come on and priestesses come running towards her. Let them follow. There is only one path for Jaelle, High Priestess of the Mother, this Midsummer’s Eve.

Dun Maura.