Hi guys! Happy Wednesday! This is part 1 of 2 of the episode: A Little Goddess and Her Ambitious Pet--I mean person.

“You forgot a bedroll?”

Amelia stands before me in the small kitchenette of my home, surrounded on all sides by mushrooms and herbs that Jun has set down to listen to the conversation, her arms crossed. Outside the little house, there is the ongoing percussion of nails being hammered into the exterior of the home. Rod and Willard had taken it upon themselves to build me a ladder and seal some of the holes on the exterior of my home before they built a roof for their own shed–they were even excited to hear that I might have someone that could help build the roof professionally. I hang my head. “I was…”

“Nervous?” Samantha supplies, twisting a root around a bushel of lemongrass that Jun intended to hang in the rafters for drying.

“Yes,” I say, relieved that someone understood.

“That’s dumb. When you need something for yourself, you need to be able to ask for it.” Lasis grumbles from their cross-legged space on the floor, shelling the nuts they’d found.

Heat threatens to redden my cheeks but I hold firm. “No, it isn’t,” I grumble.

“Well, at least Will and Rod have their nails.” Amelia says with a sigh, making me feel entirely more ashamed of myself than is probably warranted. Wasn’t I their master?

The thought makes me smile as I look around, my little home filled with skeletons that have just stuffed it, brimming to the windows, in foodstuffs found in the forest. Henry sits in the door, their bulk too large to enter, but nonetheless wanting to be a part of the goings on. As much as my contract with them was to serve and protect them from harm, they took their end of the contract just as seriously. I’d almost literally raised myself a whole family. They didn’t need to eat, and yet here they were, without my say-so, preserving all the food they had foraged for me in the woods that day. These bodies that didn’t need sleep or stasis, yet worried about my ability to rest and recover.

My heart felt like it would burst at the very thought. I grip their bones in my arms, gathering them into a group hug. “Thank you.” I whisper.

Amelia goes rigid beneath by hold, but pats my back. “What for? Yelling at you? I can certainly do more of that.”

I steel a secret smile into my heart and release them. “Yes, continue to do that.”

Lasis returns to their seat on the floor and taps their fingers on their femur. “Lady Sybil, I hope you don’t mind but…” they hedge for a moment, seeming shy. “I had a feeling you might not return with a proper blanket so…”

“Come on, len. Go ahead and show her what you made.” Jun presses gently. 

Made? I don’t need to wait very long to learn what they’re talking about. They dash outside, and I hear them speaking in low tones to Rod and Willard who have ceased their hammering. Lasis returns with a folded sheet made of moss and grass.

“It still needs to be dried out, it’s meant to be a carpet later.” they say, shyly, “But if you need it tonight–”

I take it in my hands and thumb over the beautiful weaves. “How did you do this?” I ask, in absolute awe.

Lasis shrugs.

“They used to be a weaver in life,” Samantha quips. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It certainly is,” I murmur, unfolding it carefully to get a better look.

“Let's set it by the stove and let some of the moisture come off of it,” Jun suggests. Lasis takes the rug from my hands and folds it over one of the drying racks Jun built sometime during my absence that day.

“Thank you.” I say, feeling more heart-heavy than I did even twenty minutes ago.

“Of course,” Lasis says before plopping back onto the ground to deshell some more nuts.

Henry shifts loudly and I look up to see Roderick sidling through the door. “That should do it for now, Lady Sybil. We’ve gathered some extra wood alongside the shed for the roofers when they come out.”

I nod. “That’s great,” I tell him.

“It’s still midday, are there any other tasks you want us to attend to?” He wipes down his finger bones.

“Is it too much to ask for you guys to rest?” I ask incredulously.

“Yes.” They say in unison.

“Okay.” I set my hands on my hips. “I have to commit some of our friends to the earth–”

“Henry found a good space for just that, my lady,” Samantha offers. Henry nods shyly.

I smile, “Okay. Amelia, Lasis, would you guys come with Henry and me?” I ask, “The rest of you can put our brand new plow to some good use, if you wish. I’d like to start getting some sowing done before it gets too warm.

Roderick nods. “I’ll grab Willard, he’s getting restless.”

“Already?” I groan, and Jun chuckles.

“I’ll get some lunch made up for you when you return. You’ll likely need a rest.”

I pat their arm, “Thank you, Jun. Well, shall we get moving?”

The ceremony to commit the others to the earth was a simple yet heartwarming ceremony.

The remains that we had gathered the day before were laid side-by-side in a short row under the eaves of old trees. The wheelbarrow came in handy once again to transport them through the forest and into the cheerful, serene grove that Henry had found. The soil was soft and pliable, easy to cut into with the rusty shovel Willard had found the night before. Amelia, Lasis, and Henry prepared the bones by finding flowers in the area, tucking them around the bodies while I dug. Henry gently set each bone into the ground, gingerly pressing them into the soil like seeds, and we spread flowers in and around them.

I gather up the energy from the earth and wrap it around the bones in a wreath of gentle, glittering magic. My voice sings out:

“Blessed are you, great earth,

Who gathers us within her embrace;

Who fills us with her energy,

And beyond the veil hides her face.

I, with these souls, commit to you,

O holy one of green and brown,

The same energy that you hath trusted,

To your loving arms within the ground.”

In harmony, the souls within the bones thrum with the same energy, twining around mine in their own unique shades of color. They swirl into the ground, scattering like firecrackers dancing in their freshly dug graves. Thank you, they whisper, gently in to my ear, as if along a breeze.

“With the power you have given me,

O Mother, O Sister, O Daughter, O friend.

I commit these souls to you,

May never again their energy lend.

Allow them rest, my goddess,

And passage through your pine gates

Into the next world, the next lifetimes,

Whatever their fates.”

The magic settles, and I am filled with an overwhelming exhaustion, having drained my own mana into the ceremony. My knees sink into the loam, and I feel the earth come up to meet me, wrapping her energy around me. My eyes glisten.

“Thank you for all of the time you have given, and spent with the people who came before me,” I whisper to the bones. “Though I did not meet you, did not know you, I am honored to be your last rites.”  From my belt purse I pull a small vial with blue liquid and dribble a few drops from its lip onto the bones below. “Sleep easy, my friends. I’ll see you in the next life.”

The last words are spoken as a muscle memory, I realize, though I know I won’t get another chance at this life. They are the words one says in a final commitment ceremony, and in some regards, I mean it. Whatever lay beyond that Great Chasm, down that beautiful river into whatever is Next, I hoped I could meet these souls again. These souls and the souls of the bones around me, the friends and comrades I had made along the way. Henry and Lasis helped shovel the earth back into place and Amelia bent to wrap her bone-arms around me. I didn’t realize I was crying. I lean into her ribcage and let the feelings take over me. I don’t know if it’s the release of energy, the regular heavy emotions I get when I do a commitment ceremony, or if it’s the realization that I will never get another shot at life. I will never reincarnate, my bones will never be used–especially if the invading kingdom still, well, invades. I think above all, it’s the release of the control I have on all of it.