The sky was obscured by a blanket of grey clouds, though no rain fell. There were few people to be seen in the streets, and those who were looked down at the ground. It seemed as if all of Xan'tai was mourning the loss of Averie Gerald Lotta , and indeed, hundreds were gathered to witness her burial.
Averie had been well-loved by the Xantish people from the moment she set foot on their land. She had adopted their culture quickly, and though she did not share their dark skin and hair, they had accepted her as if she did. With help from Ket (the name she had instantly begun to call him, to Lady Selkirk's dismay, when she arrived at Xan'tai for the first time, saying "I may as well begin to immerse myself in your culture now, and you are my friend, so I must call you Ket here," with a mischievous smile playing at her lips), she had learned to speak his language, which only made her more popular with the Xantish people. She adored the food, and learned to cook traditional Xantish meals using ma'het and other native spices. And after attending her first Xantish party alongside Ket, she became enthralled with the idea of hosting her own, and began to throw lavish parties often for her new friends. It was no surprise that when Averie became ill, many people came to her aid, and even more came to the aid of her family when she breathed her last breath.
It was customary in Xan'tai when a person died to bury a prized possession along with the body of the deceased. A ceremony was conducted during which the item was blessed by a priest of the Xantish gods and then placed in the casket close to the person's heart. Averie, of course, always planned to follow this tradition, as she had embraced every other aspect of Xantish life. When she had fallen ill with a sickness no one could diagnose, she knew her death was inevitable, especially in her old age, and she thought long and hard about what she wished to take with her into the ground. She finally settled on something that was more meaningful to her than anything else.
Averie had never forgotten her time in Chiarrin, even though she had vowed never to return to the land that had betrayed her mercilessly, and she could not deny that some aspects of Chiarrizi culture were still dear to her. The broken gods inspired her, and she adored the way the people wore certain colours to mean different things. Though headscarves were not fashionable in Xan'tai as they were in Chiarrin, Averie continued to wear her coloured fabric proudly in little strips tied around her left wrist, and it changed colour as she aged.
These strips of fabric gave her an idea for the prized object that she would have buried with her when she died. She wanted to tell her life story in colours; a neat row of multi-hued fabrics that each stood for a stage in her life. Many people would never understand what they meant, but it would mean a lot to those close to her. So during her last few days, she prepared her fabrics and placed them in order in an intricately carved wooden box.
The first piece was a fluttery white strip of translucent fabric. It represented Averie's childhood in general.
After that, a deep purple fabric stood to represent her mother's death.
Then came a blue silk piece with a red border, signifying her first bleeding and the celebrations that came with her transition out of childhood and into womanhood. Then, she had worn blue alone for a while.
When Colonel Morgan Strode asked her for her hand in marriage, she accepted, and the cloth she used to represent this was blue with a green edge, to tell the world she was betrothed.
But then, for a period, a purple cloth stood in, to signify the death of her father and the discontinuation of her betrothal to Colonel Strode. The cloth she wore after this was blue, no longer with the green border.
Much to Lady Selkirk's dismay, Averie was soon betrothed to Ket. Once again, she was to wear blue with a green border. Not long after, she wore green with a red border, to show that she was married to Ket, and then the red border disappeared as the celebration of the marriage waned. Once she was married to Ket, Lady Selkirk returned to Aeberelle, and while Averie was tempted to wear a celebratory red again, she politely stayed with her green.
Not long after, however, she was to wear red again, because she would soon have a child. The red was then replaced by a blue border, as she had a baby girl who she named Allura.
Sadly, her celebratory fabric was replaced with a black, then a purple, and then back to plain green again, because baby Allura became ill and perished not three months after her arrival into the world.
After that time of sorrow, Averie was reluctant to try again in fear that her next child would meet the same fate, but she later wore a border of gold for her son Kevaro and another blue border for her daughter Som'aia.
For many years, Averie wore the same green with borders of blue and gold, until the tragic death of Ket forced her to wear purple once again. Ket was nearly seventy years old when he died, but he still died a Xantish hero, as he was killed in the struggle against the Aeberelle army that had not yet left Xan'tai. Averie did not remove her purple for years.
Then, when she became ill herself in her eighty-third year with an unexplained illness, she wore black to signify that she was in danger. She knew that she was old and frail, and that it would take a miracle for her to make a full recovery. And she was right. For about a year, she seemed fine, and she wore a simple purple again, but then her illness returned and she knew her time had come.
On top of the colourful array of fabric, Averie had placed her silver Seena charm, the only other Chiarrizi thing she hadn't been able to bear to give up. Seena had given her hope through the darkest parts of her life, reassuring her that though she was wounded by the deaths of those around her, she could continue living her life.
But by far the most significant of all the items Averie was buried with was the pale pink sink she had tied around her wrist the morning she died. Though pink had not been given a meaning in Chiarrin, Averie had assigned the colour a meaning of her own. She said it signified peace.