SatM: Ceremony

The water lapped at the sandy shore, a harmony to the crackle of the fire blazing on the beach. The sky was perfectly clear and each star shone like a diamond chip in a velvet dress, unobscured by an absent moon that was perfectly new. The barest hint of a chill flirted in the air, signalling the end of summer and the dawn of the autumn. 

I knelt on the cold sand, the waves lapping at my barely covered skin, soaking me until I felt less a girl and more a thing of nature. The fire at my back granted the barest warmth to my chilled flesh and the salt of the air coated my tongue. 

“What is your name?”

Behind closed eyes, I saw a girl with thick black hair crouched in a closet with the shadows of a fight playing through the cracks. I saw tear stains and bloodied fists. I saw hands that yearned and feet that ran. I saw hunger and desperation.

Sara Young.

“What is your truth?”

I saw the sun rise and the moon set, the ground soaking up light and water so that plants might soak it in turn, I saw humans consuming the fruits of nature to return to that same soil and feed the trees they slept under. 

Balance..

“Who do you serve?”

Three figures rose from a formless mist and surrounded me, one blazing like the sun, one cold as a sheet of ice, and one a crackling hearth fire. I felt each in equal measure and the truth behind each, the way a sun was forever alone, burning any who came too close. The protection offered by the impenetrability of a mutable source. How even the cheerest of fires would one day burn out if it didn’t continue to consume. 

I serve Clan Ward. 

“Do you swear to learn until you find your limit?”

I saw the Mirror’s Edge and the ingredients to a future I wished to brew. I felt the spines of books whose contents I dreamt of reading. I smelled the must that collected on the air when so much age was housed together. I saw a swirling doorway that would lead me anywhere.

I swear to find my limits and break them.

“Do you swear to hold our secrets until your days are spent?”

A rattling wind threatened to blow the doors in on a house that was no longer home. A fire ravaged a room with a little girl screaming inside. Blood sprayed across my face and I felt the sticky hot stink of it fill my nose. A shadow loomed over me and held my throat until I had no breath to spare.

Yes.

“I bind you, child of balance, to my house and my name.”

I felt a cool set of hands lift my chin, to stare at a moon that should not have been visible. In the depths of its light I could see hundreds of thousands of names rising to greet me, to caress my face, whispering in my ear, excited to meet me and holding me like a childhood blanket.

I accept this bond. 

“You will serve and learn inside my home for seven years; tonight I offer you a sign of my favor and your future.”

The light that surrounded me grew brighter and brighter, those names louder and harsher, until I felt them coalesce around my brow and temple, resting there and melting into me. I felt a new weight settle upon me and a part of my heart felt whole, when I hadn’t noticed its emptiness. 

I accept this gift. 

“I take your name, Sara Young, to be returned to you in seven years, and offer a replacement to honor your gifts and your ambition.”

The stars seemed to fall from the sky - no, they weren’t falling. I was rising to meet them. They surrounded me like friends I had long forgotten, giggling and holding me, before we swept along the ground and watched the moon pull and the ocean pull back, the wind blow and the trees bend back. I saw the world in a blink of an eye. 

I accept this name. 

“Then rise, Harmony Astor, and join the Clan of Ward.”