It was on a chilly day in what should have been late summer that Fial saw Taru slowly wandering in the oakwoods on the slopes behind the Overlord’s House. The migratory birds seemed to have sensed the approaching cold and many were leaving earlier than usual to winter further south or in the lands closer to the ocean. Fial had watched them, and then turned her gaze to watch Taru walk briefly down to the riverbank, though being there seemed to increase his melancholia; it was too bleak. So he had turned to climbed back among the trees. And Fial had followed.
She had known that Taru was there or thereabouts having espied him as she sat on a rock further along the bank. She wanted to speak to him – to see him – so she followed. She did not cry out, though, for the doubt that often assailed her had not completely departed, despite his previous, evident interest in her and delight in her company.
It was very overcast, and the path was damp and gloomy, bestrewn with fallen leaves, and even the occasional branch that had fallen across it from the storms of the previous few days.
Fial made sure that Taru heard her before he saw her – her arrhythmic song drifting up the path as she climbed the gentle slope. He was smiling when she came round the bend. If anything, he was more pleased to see her than she him, for her joy was tempered by the knowledge that she would have to go away again soon. Permanently this time. That was why she had disappeared for a bit; there were things she had had to see to, perhaps with a certain amount of duty within them, but also with cores of hope for future contentment – if not happiness.
But then she did not really understand what being happy as an adult meant; as a child – definitely – with wonder and awe at the bounty of the Goddess’s world around only slowly fading under the strictures of measurement and structures. Yet she still maintained they did not have to disappear too completely under day-to-day precepts; keeping artistic endeavour in crafts, awareness of beauty in sweeping floors; and not allowing order to exercise too much tyranny. Yet she struggled to keep this all in her heart: she could still hold onto them as intellectual concepts (making the base world easier to deal with), but the easy acceptance she had had for the fundamental truths of creation were no longer with her. Perhaps never would be again.
The first task Fial had had to undertake was to go to the Temple Compound in An Uaimh to discuss her entry into the Priestesshood: she had decided to enter, but they had yet to accept her devotion. She was also going to visit Nessa and spend some time with her family, especially attending Damnat’s wedding.
Fial had considered not going to the nuptials – a serious and prolonged consideration – with her as the maiden-older-spinster-sister, still on the shelf, being an object that would perhaps overshadow the bride, with people asking Why? But her parents would not hear of it and Damnat said she was being ridiculous: how could she get married without her big sister being there? So what if she was not yet married, after all she, Damnat, had jumped at the chance to get hitched, even though only just of age; people would simply consider Fial as more discerning. Damnat had laughed.
Although she and Fial were not similar characters, they had retained the unconditional love for each other that had permeated their first few years together, before Fial had itched to move outside her father’s walls. And Damnat was the only one of her family who had not changed towards Fial when she had become withdrawn.
Fial was unconvinced by Damnat’s argument, but she did agree to attend. It was what she probably wanted anyway.
And she did enjoy herself; yet not really because of having to meet lots of people she scarcely knew and only sometimes cared about, but because of the elation in her sister’s eyes. Odar was not someone Fial warmed to particularly, remembering him from before he had met Damnat when he had seemed somewhat arrogant and offhand. But her sister loved him, and he made her happy, and that was enough for Fial. She would flatten him if he hurt her, mind.
