Published May 13, 2017, the centennial of Our Lady of Fatima's first appearance.
Updated June 27, 2018.

"Crown of Roses"

A Catholic without prayer? It is the same as a soldier without arms. ~ St. Josemaría Escriva

Allura no longer wore much jewelry on a daily basis. In fact, with the exception of a few heirlooms that she wanted to keep, she thought she might eventually barter some for supplies—the castle-ship's stores, well-stocked as they were, would not support the inhabitants indefinitely.

She let the four Altean mice play in her jewelry box and make nests out of her old accessories. She became used to finding various items in disarray on her dresser or spilled on the floor.

Then she began to notice that certain items seemed to be missing, ones that she had cleaned up just a day or two before. Since she had other things to worry about, she let this slip, until she found the mice pulling a broken necklace toward a vent.

She knelt down before them and spoke gently but firmly. "I don't mind if you play with my jewelry, but please keep it in my room, alright? I might need it someday."

Chuchule stared at her as though dismayed. Plachu glowered, either annoyed or embarrassed. Plat and Chulatt exchanged glances, as if they were worried. "What's wrong?" Allura asked, not understanding. She thought she was being quite reasonable.

Plat responded, squeaking in that frequency Allura had been able to hear ever since awaking from the sleep pod: They're not for us.

Allura frowned. "What do you mean?"

Someone asked for them.

"Someone asked you? Who?" Allura truly had no idea who it could be. Who in the castle would want her jewelry, and would go so low as to take it covertly?

Lance.

"Lance? But why?"

He didn't say.

Suspicious, and more than a little intrigued, Allura took the mice and necklace into her hands and stood. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

She went to the lounge, where Coran and the paladins were relaxing. "Lance? May I have a word with you?"

Lance straightened up attentively. "Sure. I thought you'd never ask!"

It was the flirty tone that made Allura decide to stay and ask in front of the others rather than in private. She put the question as bluntly as she could: "Why did you send the mice to steal my jewelry?"

"What?" Lance's first reaction was surprise, but that quickly turned to anger accompanied by embarrassment. He glared at the mice atop Allura's shoulders. "You ratted me out!" he spat. When they squealed with indignity, he added, "Pun fully intended!"

"You should know better than to trust the mice," Allura commented. "They can't keep a secret."

"Oh, really? That would've been good to know."

"I'd like to know why you've been doing it," Allura said adamantly.

Lance looked down. "I'm making something," he muttered.

"Is it for yourself or someone else?" Coran asked curiously.

"Well—for me, but—"

"I didn't take you for the jewelry type," Keith remarked, eyebrows raised in what might have been amusement.

Lance glowered at him, furious at the mere possibility of being laughed at, but Pidge intervened before he could defend himself. "You don't have to be embarrassed. Guys can wear jewelry if they want," she said with a shrug.

"It's not an accessory!" Lance cried indignantly. "It's a weapon!"

Keith and Pidge looked at him as though they sincerely doubted his sanity. Shiro and Hunk were simply bemused, while Allura and Coran were curious.

"It's true!" Lance insisted. "Spiritual warriors on Earth have used them for centuries!"

Something clicked in Hunk's mind, and he started to laugh as he understood. "Oh, I remember. You had a rosary in your room at the Garrison. Is that what that is?"

"Yeah."

"Ooohhhhh." Varying degrees of understanding dawned on Pidge, Keith, and Shiro, but the Alteans were still clueless.

"If it's jewelry and a weapon," Allura ventured, "is it meant to be worn, like armor?"

"Well—you can wear it, but it doesn't always work that way." Lance hoped he was not blaspheming by saying that. He knew it would be superstitious to say the opposite, that anyone who wore it was guaranteed success and safety. It was too complicated to even think about, let alone explain to someone else.

"What exactly is a rosary?" Keith asked.

"'Rosary' means a crown of roses—that's a type of flower on Earth," Lance added for the Alteans' benefit. "It's shaped like a necklace, but when you use it you're supposed to hold it in your hands. Each bead stands for a prayer. Each prayer is supposed to be like a rose offered to—the saints." Lance knew he was skipping an opportunity to evangelize, but really, even if Alteans had a concept of deities, how could he begin to explain the concept of God having a mother? The Communion of Saints was one thing, the Incarnation was quite another. He tried to grasp onto something concrete that they would understand. "Back home, my family prayed it together. I wanted to try it again."

"So, you sent out thieves to make this thing so you could pray?" Keith asked for clarification.

"It wasn't supposed to be stealing!" Lance insisted. "I told them to just take broken bits, things Allura wouldn't miss."

Pidge scratched her head. "If it's used to count prayers, couldn't you just use your fingers or something?"

"Yeah, but I like having something to hold in my hands. It keeps me centered."

"Well, you didn't need to make it covertly." Allura set the mice down on the couch and held the broken necklace out to Lance. "I'd be glad to contribute to your project."

Lance blinked at her. "Really? Thank you."

"I bet I can find something to make a cross out of," Hunk suggested. "I could try baking something like clay, or meld something out of scrap metal."

"That'd be great! I figured, if I couldn't make a whole one, I could make one with just a decade—that's ten beads, plus the little chain hanging off."

Allura brought her broken and unwanted jewelry to the lounge and let Lance pick out pieces. Hunk took some metallic odds and ends to Pidge's laboratory in the Green Lion's hangar. When he came back, they were melded together roughly in the shape of a cross. Lance thanked them and took these new supplies to his room, and did not come out for the rest of the evening.

A few days later, as they were sharing a meal, Allura asked Lance, "How did your crown of roses turn out?"

"Oh—well." Lance reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out the strange item. The beads were mismatched and varied in colors and shapes, though Lance had tried to make every eleventh bead distinct from the ten on either side of it. "It looks kind of silly," he acknowledged, "but it has the right parts, so it's … adequate." He passed it to Allura, and let her pass it down the table to the other paladins. He felt nervous watching them handle it, like tourists examining a curio. He was glad when it came back to him.

"Did it help like you thought it would?" Pidge asked.

Lance was not sure what she meant, or how to answer truthfully. "… Yeah. I guess. I don't know if it makes me feel close to God or the saints … but it does make me feel closer to my family. Like I'm still praying with them. Even if I'm not doing it right, I know they are, so it's like they vouch for me." Lance felt his cheeks get hot as he fumbled for the words. "I can't explain it right."

"No, that makes sense," Shiro said kindly.

"Yeah, I think I can understand that," Keith agreed.

It did not take long for Lance to fall away from praying with his rosary. Most days, he felt he simply did not have enough time. He figured he had an acceptable excuse, because the activities that kept him busy were for the greater good. But he kept the rosary in his pocket, and felt reassured knowing that he could always come back to it.