They finished their work, tying the twine around the remaining bundles of straw and securing the bundles together, until a vaguely humanoid-shaped figure made of straw lay upon the table in repose.
Liriel unfolded the cheap, dirty cloth, revealing it to be a discarded slubby linen dress, stained and smudged and riddled with small holes torn in the fabric and then mended. Though the weave was rough and worn, even threadbare in places, the fabric itself smelled clean and soft to the touch.
Their three sets of hands carefully dressed the straw effigy, gently working the straw-bundle arms through the sleeves and fastening the back of the dress shut with one button as best they could. Before long, the effigy was laid upon the table again, this time wearing its garment and ready for the funeral to begin.
But Liriel produced a wooden mask from elsewhere in the room. Though this mask had none of the power the Rashemaar hathrans' masks were said to have, it was a passable imitation of what the witches actually wore, curved and flat and painted with geometric shapes in red, yellow and blue. She attached it to the bundle of straw at the top of the effigy that stood in for a head.
As far as Lidia could remember, she had never seen Dynaheir wear such a mask while she traveled on the Sword Coast. Maybe, with the Red Wizards hunting her, she had reasoned that she was actually better hidden without one, despite what the witches' tradition dictated. But Dynaheir had never spoken of it herself, and the chance to ask her was long gone.
Liriel surveyed their work as Aerie and Lidia smoothed down the dress over the straw. She gave a quick nod.
"Let us take our sister, then, to her final rest," she said.
Lidia and Aerie glanced at each other, as they both knew Dynaheir's body was likely lying beside some road outside Baldur's Gate. But in order to properly bury her, Lidia realized, they had to treat the effigy as an acceptable substitute.
"Shouldn't—shouldn't Minsc be here?" Aerie asked, more nervously than usual.
"I asked him, but he insisted it was our work to do," Liriel said. "Believe me, it doesn't make much sense to me either, but if it is their tradition, he is likely immovable."
The straw figure was heavy as they laid it in a makeshift stretcher. Easing it out of the doorway and through the back of the shop, they found themselves in a small open area behind the bottom level of the Promenade storefronts. The higher stone levels in the great market ascended far above, resting on closely-spaced white limestone pillars as, step by step, they reached towards the rapidly lightening sky.
The market was abuzz as the merchants took delivery of their goods and their employees reported in. A faint smell of wood fires and baking bread wafted through the air, though everyone around them who was eating breakfast contented themselves with having something while on their feet, carrying a handful of nuts or a small piece of fruit.
Despite the commotion about them, Aerie and Lidia moved slowly, reverently, and silently as they carried the stretcher, with Liriel close ahead and clearing passage for them. The passersby barely gave them a second glance, perhaps assuming that their purpose was business of some kind.
They left the Promenade and wound their way west through the River District, then north near the docks, passing through Alandamer's Gate as they left Athkatla. They continued on for some time on a road through the farmlands north of the city, though on their right was the great temple and monastery of Waukeen called the Goldspires.
As they left the city and came to more lonely places, Liriel broke the silence. She chanted in a long tone, moving the note only every now and again:
"O powers whose name is unutterable,
Maiden, mother, and wise woman three,
O spirits who dwell in the rocks and fields,
Spirits who dwell in the seas and skies,
Spirits who dwell in the hearth and fire:
Bear our sister to her homeland,
Cleanse her soul from warfare wrought,
And receive her into your dwellings.
She wandered the earth in dajemma,
Weighty of purpose and in waxing power,
A flame that burned hearts of pitch.
She who stood against the butchers of Thay,
She who stood against the tyrant of Bhaal,
She who stood against all foes save one."
Liriel's chant continued on for some time, summarizing Dynaheir's travels in the Sword Coast and describing her last encounter with Irenicus. Likely Minsc had something to do with that — Lidia guessed it was so because, when the song mentioned the flooding of the Cloakwood mine, the heavens opened and poured all their waters into the chasm beneath the earth, when all Gorion's Company actually did was unlock a steel river dam.
Whether that was Minsc's version of the story or Liriel's poetic license was difficult to say. Still, she seemed to have omitted any mention of kicking evil behinds, which Minsc would have left in.
Finally, by mid-morning, they made their way to a cliff not far north of the Goldspires that overlooked the Sea of Swords, the waters churning as the waves noisily crashed against the rock.
They paused for a moment, looking over the sea a hundred feet below them.
"Cast the effigy into the waters," Liriel said.
"That's it?" Aerie asked.
"That's it. Rashemaar believe that if one of the wychlaran dies violently and is then buried, her spirit will wreak great destruction on the land or her body will return as undead. I'd probably do something similar, if a mad wizard killed me," Liriel said, "though I'd hope to be able to choose my targets."
Without much further comment, then, they laid the stretcher upon the ground, lifted up the effigy, and cast it over the edge of the cliff. For a moment, the straw woman sailed through the air, the wind tearing at the hem of her worn linen dress, until it landed on the ocean's white caps, barely missing one of the rocks below. It rode upon the surface of the water for a while, rising and falling with the waves, until it was soaked through, gradually sinking until the ocean buried it.
They looked down in silence for a while, then returned to Waukeen's Promenade, leaving the old stretcher by the side of the road that led to the cliffs.