"I can't resist temptation. That is my curse."
To be the future wife of the Grand Master of the Temple means a life of status, riches, and stability. It means you no longer have to pretend to be a boy, doing criminal acts to take care of your ailin...
Master Hoseok focused on it, drowning out the sound of the weeping around him by repeating the same word in his head over and over again, as he motioned final rights through the smoke.
Eternal. Eternal. Eternal.
He still wasn't sure what that meant.
Hoseok shut his eyes, humming to signal that he was about to speak.
"We pray to the great Star Goddess to accept the soul of this dear loved one –"
- should any of us even have souls worth accepting –
"-- that this child may rest in eternal bliss beside thee –"
– even though we know nothing but suffering here —
"-- and we ask for guidance so that the rest of us may stand beside you when our lives, too, have finished here."
– if it's worth the hassle.
With the ending of the Rite of Eternal Passage, Hoseok dropped his shaking hand to his side.
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He swallowed, trying to keep his eyes steady ahead. It didn't matter if he believed any of the words he said. He simply had to say them so that others would believe. That was the job of a master of the temple: to always show absolute belief in the Star Goddess so others had hope.
If he had shown his true confusion, the others would be as lost as him.
He sat with the grieving for another hour. Their tears stained the wooden floor of the funeral room as they bowed in front of the urn of a child who had been no older than eleven. These types of ceremonies were so common that he couldn't remember the last time he felt sorrow at a funeral. Instead, he focused on his ankles; sitting on them for such a long period of time created the sensation of needles, and focusing on that pain helped him display something akin to remorse and grief. He couldn't do such things naturally anymore. He was already completely numb from the inside out.
He sat and waited until sunset, letting them feel pain he couldn't remember.
When the light faded from the windows, the only griever left in the room was the mother of the child. The child's father had already died at war, and the mother was left with nowhere left to go for the night. Hoseok came to his feet, gracefully walking forward even though there was no feeling in his feet.
He placed his hand on her shoulder in comfort. She looked up to him, the tears in her eyes turning her nose and cheeks bright red.
"Please, tell me..." she started with a shaky breath. "Please tell me that my daughter is in the arms of the Star Goddess now."
He smiled hollowly.
"The Star Goddess accepts all who call on her," he replied. "Her heart reaches out to all children."
