Daughter of Three Suns
Chapter 5
"Alice are you afraid?" I whispered into the darkness of our sleeping room. Although Emma slept soundly between us, I knew Alice was still awake. I was aware of her loud breathing and constant shifting. Our sleeping room was still cold, dark, so I knew Daughter Sun hadn't made her appearance yet. I had only a short time with my sister, though.
"A little," she finally answered.
"Of the pain?" I asked.
"Not so much the pain, but …"
"What, Alice?" My voice was louder and Emma rolled toward me in her sleep.
"Shh, you'll wake her," she whispered back.
"Tell me, please," I quietly begged.
"I'm afraid I won't be strong enough, that I'll disgrace myself with my screaming. What if Daughter Sun rejects me? What if …"
I waited, but she didn't finish. She was quiet for so long I thought perhaps she didn't want to give voice to her fears. When I thought she would never answer, she finally continued. "What if I don't change? What if I don't come back?"
"I don't understand. Doesn't everyone change? Doesn't everyone come back?" Her answer worried me. I hadn't thought beyond the pain of the Metanora, the transformation. I heard her sigh in the darkness.
"Not everyone survives, Bella. Sometimes, a girl's body isn't strong enough and she sleeps forever in the sand. Other times, she survives only to become lost when she journeys to find her basherter. And then there are those who change but in a different way."
I waited for her to say more, to explain what she meant. When she didn't, I sat up in a huff. "Explain, Alice. What do you mean? How does a girl change but in a different way?" Beside me, Emma whimpered and snuggled deeper into the bed coverings.
I heard Alice rise from the bed. Her footsteps padded softly on the rocky floor as she moved to my side of the bed. She settled in beside me and reached for my hand. "Bella." Her voice was the barest whisper. "Sometimes a girl becomes a seer."
I gasped at her words. In my childish naïveté I had never thought about the seers or how they came to be. They were our teachers, our spiritual leaders—the wise women of our people. But now, as I considered them, I realized they weren't adult women. Although obviously older, they still looked like girls––short with pale skin and no woman's curves or claws. They had no basherter and no children. They lived in the deeper, darker caves beneath our home because their eyes were sensitive to sunlight. I had never seen a seer above ground when Daughter Sun ruled the sky.
Silently, I shed tears, thinking of my sister living apart from us, her life dedicated to serving Grandmother Spirit. "No, Alice, no," I whispered to her in the quiet room. She didn't answer, only squeezing my hand as we lay there waiting for the heat of Daughter Sun.
I was still awake when Mother came for Alice. I followed her into the gathering room where Rosalie was waiting. As she had done with our older sister, Mother hugged Alice to her, then stepped back and said the same formal words she had spoken before.
"You have been called to your Metanora, my daughter," she said. "Go now and give yourself to Daughter Sun. Find your basherter. Return to us a woman, strong and with child so that you will ensure the continuation of our lineage. May Grandmother's Spirit guide you."
This time I saw the worry and anxiety on her face as she walked toward her room. She stumbled once, catching herself on the wall before closing the privacy curtain. I could hear Charles trying to soothe her.
Rosalie had Emma with her. I picked her up, balancing her on my hip and followed my sisters to the terrace opening. Four other girls and their companions were waiting there. Alice removed her clothes and followed Rosalie into the searing heat of Daughter Sun.
From the shade of the rock overhang, I watched everyone and everything carefully. All the companions carried bags upon their backs. I knew these contained supplies that each girl would need after her change when she went to search for her basherter. I knew the staffs they carried would be used as stakes in their offering and as weapons on their journeys.
One of the girls cried out, I could see the beginnings of blisters forming on her shoulders. Another stumbled, and I saw her back turning red from the heat. My eyes sought my sisters. Alice walked calmly beside Rosalie, her skin still pale and unblemished. I watched until they disappeared from view.
After the next sleep, the companions returned. They had left their sisters and nieces on the sand dunes of the desert to complete their change and find their Moirai. Everyone, that is, except Rosalie. A cry went up from one of the sentinels and we rushed to see two figures approaching our home. I recognized my sister's tall form immediately but not the shorter one walking beside her. It was covered from head to toe with a cloth covering, protecting it from the sun and hiding its identity.
The women must have understood what was happening because there was a great commotion and my mother ran by me. I heard footsteps and turned to find the seers gathered in a group in the most sheltered part of the overhang. Their soft voices were chanting the first of the Blessings. When I turned back to the entrance, Rosalie and my mother were leading the covered figure into the shade. They carefully removed the coverings to reveal my sister Alice.
Alice left as a child and returned as a child, yet she was different. Her skin was still pale, her stature small. Her hair appeared singed and covered her head in short tufts, but it was her eyes that were the most changed. They were not the glowing gold of an adult woman. As she followed our mother toward the grouped seers, I whispered her name. She turned to face me, and I stared into eyes gone completely white. She cocked her head slightly and blinked. Then, I realized the full extent of my sister's offering. Alice could not see; she was blind.
Mother handed her second daughter to the seers. They dressed her in the white robes of their order, and then, still chanting, led her away to the lower caves where she would now live. Everyone else returned to their work, except me. Anger consumed me as I stood just at the edge of the shaded terrace, staring at the heat waves shimmering on the sweltering dunes. Slowly I raised my unmarked arm and thrust it out into the light. The pain swept over me in agonizing waves. With gritted teeth, I left it there until my hand and arm were covered in angry, red blisters. When I could stand it no longer, I pulled it back, gasping as tears ran down my cheeks. I knew when it came time for my trial, I wouldn't be lost to the sands, neither would I become a seer. I would return a woman.
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AN: What better way to celebrate today than to send out an extra chapter. This one is fairly short. They'll start getting much longer as we get into the meat of the story. Thank you for joining me on this little journey and thank you to Sally for finding all my mistakes. More tomorrow.
