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31_days2009-09-05 10:41 am
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2009-09-05 10:41 am
[Sept. 5][Suikoden III] Pyre
Title: Pyre
Day/Theme: Sept. 5, 2009 "burn the length and breadth of sky"
Series: Suikoden III
Character/Pairing: Annie, Kiheiji, Nika, Sasarai, Sev
Rating: PG
Comment: getting back to a story/project I was working on much earlier this year.
It seemed significant to Nika that even with Sasarai's blessing given to the task and to those whose remains would be involved there was still widespread animosity to the proposal to cremate at least a portion of the dead. The people of Viela really, really did not want to do this.
She and Kiheiji had started work on a massive pyre anyway. Some had agreed to it and they were hoping that others would soon change their minds given the alternatives.
Kiheiji had told Annie to stay inside while they worked. He didn't want her to have to witness anymore of this than she already had. Annie herself couldn't see that there would be anything worse about burning bodies than there had been leaving them to sit in the shrine or witnessing people she had known all her life fight for their lives and lose. She looked down from a second-story window of the house and reflected on how surreal the whole thing felt. Before she had thought that if her father returned home safely that everything would resolve itself, at least to the point that she would no longer feel scared or burdened with responsibilities beyond her years, but that hadn't exactly been the case. Kiheiji had even brought two of the Loveins over with him and some would-be assistance from Crystal Valley. She was certain she had seen Sev and Kiht before when Loveins had come to Viela to engage in commerce or fish along the rocks off of Viela's northeast shore. The representatives from Crystal Valley were obviously unfamiliar, but they had a good sort of determination and take-charge attitude, which couldn't hurt in a situation where the mayor was refusing to even open a window to speak with his people, much less come outside and do anything.
She leaned on the windowsill and watched Sev and the bishop join their colleagues. The window was open and Sev's voice was loud. "Got enough wood?" he asked. "I wouldn't have believed there was this much stuff left to burn on this island with the bridge gone if I wasn't seeing it myself."
"A lot of driftwood washes up along the rocks."
"Some of it's come here all the way from Arradia," Nika added. "It's kind of surprising."
"How do you know that?" Sasarai queried. His voice was softer and Annie felt herself straining to hear him.
His assistant reached down to pick up a smoothed off plank from the pile. Unlike the pieces of wood that were more clearly just random branches or twigs that had snapped off and blown or floated out to sea, this one had the shape of a man-cut and shaped panel. "There are letters on some of them." She pointed at the curving calligraphy carved into the wood and filled in with black tar.
"Oh, that is Arradian," Sasarai noted. He wondered if it had come from the wreck of a vessel. Unless it had crashed on Harmonia's coast, that little bit of wood had come a long way.
Sasarai lit the pyre casually, drawing on the power of one of the runes he carried. The speed with which the timber took to flame was evidence of magic as its source. A fire lit with matches or flint would take longer to grow. The strength of Sasarai's spell could overwhelm the resistance to burning within the dead wood.
It was a smoky blaze and she was forced to close the window to keep the cloudy air from billowing into the house. Despite the obstruction of her vision, Annie tried to keep her eyes on the scene below. A few family members of the deceased had actually gathered up the courage to venture out for this. The presence of priests had probably encouraged them. Both Sasarai and Stephen seemed exceptionally skilled in the art of calming and coaxing people with their words. Sasarai was holding his hands over the shrouded body, presumably saying a prayer and comforting the family of the deceased.
A plume of smoke brushed thickly past the window, obscuring her vision further. Annie sighed. It didn't make much difference. She'd already seen enough. The presence of tar and some green wood clipped from the hillsides and yards of the island were making the smoke worse. Her father and the others would be coming back in coughing no doubt.
In the town of the Loveins, hidden in the cliffs, the eerie gray plume was like an echo of the conflagration that had proceeded this whole mess. The flames they could see were much smaller, and contained, but it only when to show that the horrors on Viela were far from over.
There was a general hope that their chieftain and his son would return home soon and support their neighbors from a distance rather than risking themselves in person by remaining there. It would do them no good to lose their leader that way, and it would do Viela no good either.
Day/Theme: Sept. 5, 2009 "burn the length and breadth of sky"
Series: Suikoden III
Character/Pairing: Annie, Kiheiji, Nika, Sasarai, Sev
Rating: PG
Comment: getting back to a story/project I was working on much earlier this year.
It seemed significant to Nika that even with Sasarai's blessing given to the task and to those whose remains would be involved there was still widespread animosity to the proposal to cremate at least a portion of the dead. The people of Viela really, really did not want to do this.
She and Kiheiji had started work on a massive pyre anyway. Some had agreed to it and they were hoping that others would soon change their minds given the alternatives.
Kiheiji had told Annie to stay inside while they worked. He didn't want her to have to witness anymore of this than she already had. Annie herself couldn't see that there would be anything worse about burning bodies than there had been leaving them to sit in the shrine or witnessing people she had known all her life fight for their lives and lose. She looked down from a second-story window of the house and reflected on how surreal the whole thing felt. Before she had thought that if her father returned home safely that everything would resolve itself, at least to the point that she would no longer feel scared or burdened with responsibilities beyond her years, but that hadn't exactly been the case. Kiheiji had even brought two of the Loveins over with him and some would-be assistance from Crystal Valley. She was certain she had seen Sev and Kiht before when Loveins had come to Viela to engage in commerce or fish along the rocks off of Viela's northeast shore. The representatives from Crystal Valley were obviously unfamiliar, but they had a good sort of determination and take-charge attitude, which couldn't hurt in a situation where the mayor was refusing to even open a window to speak with his people, much less come outside and do anything.
She leaned on the windowsill and watched Sev and the bishop join their colleagues. The window was open and Sev's voice was loud. "Got enough wood?" he asked. "I wouldn't have believed there was this much stuff left to burn on this island with the bridge gone if I wasn't seeing it myself."
"A lot of driftwood washes up along the rocks."
"Some of it's come here all the way from Arradia," Nika added. "It's kind of surprising."
"How do you know that?" Sasarai queried. His voice was softer and Annie felt herself straining to hear him.
His assistant reached down to pick up a smoothed off plank from the pile. Unlike the pieces of wood that were more clearly just random branches or twigs that had snapped off and blown or floated out to sea, this one had the shape of a man-cut and shaped panel. "There are letters on some of them." She pointed at the curving calligraphy carved into the wood and filled in with black tar.
"Oh, that is Arradian," Sasarai noted. He wondered if it had come from the wreck of a vessel. Unless it had crashed on Harmonia's coast, that little bit of wood had come a long way.
Sasarai lit the pyre casually, drawing on the power of one of the runes he carried. The speed with which the timber took to flame was evidence of magic as its source. A fire lit with matches or flint would take longer to grow. The strength of Sasarai's spell could overwhelm the resistance to burning within the dead wood.
It was a smoky blaze and she was forced to close the window to keep the cloudy air from billowing into the house. Despite the obstruction of her vision, Annie tried to keep her eyes on the scene below. A few family members of the deceased had actually gathered up the courage to venture out for this. The presence of priests had probably encouraged them. Both Sasarai and Stephen seemed exceptionally skilled in the art of calming and coaxing people with their words. Sasarai was holding his hands over the shrouded body, presumably saying a prayer and comforting the family of the deceased.
A plume of smoke brushed thickly past the window, obscuring her vision further. Annie sighed. It didn't make much difference. She'd already seen enough. The presence of tar and some green wood clipped from the hillsides and yards of the island were making the smoke worse. Her father and the others would be coming back in coughing no doubt.
In the town of the Loveins, hidden in the cliffs, the eerie gray plume was like an echo of the conflagration that had proceeded this whole mess. The flames they could see were much smaller, and contained, but it only when to show that the horrors on Viela were far from over.
There was a general hope that their chieftain and his son would return home soon and support their neighbors from a distance rather than risking themselves in person by remaining there. It would do them no good to lose their leader that way, and it would do Viela no good either.