Good morning all. Hope you are having a fantastic week. I am a little bleary eyed this morning, but to be honest I think it is due to air quality as I slept pretty well last night (I know shocker). I think I might try the under eye caffeine patches and see if my eyes need their own cup of coffee. Bit at least my hand no longer hurts from the wasp sting, so that is something. For now, timers set and off we go.
I thin the early writing exercises are starting to influence my writing. I can’t complain though, I kind of like this start. Obviously something bad is going to happen soon, I am just not quite sure what. Yet. I may work on this a bit later.
Wednesday, July 9th: Soon it will be time.
“Soon it will be time,” The high priest’s words were spoken without inflection. He had been my tutor since I started my first lessons and I knew that his voice could be as malleable as any actor. I was accustomed to his teasing tones and mocking amusement as I progressed with my lessons. I remembered his harsher scolding tones with some of my other siblings. As his words were often razor sharp, I never gave him reason to turn that tone on me. I enjoyed my lessons and excelled at them, so it was not a difficult prospect.
I knew to expect no favoritism or extra treatment here, but the blankness of the tone threw me off. I knew to expect it and yet, I somehow didn’t. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was a time-honored ritual. All the royal family had to go through it when they reached their twenty fifth year. This was the year the people of the Empire were proclaimed fully independent adults under law.
For the populous it meant they could establish their own houses outside of their parental homes. They could choose their own spouses or leave family run businesses to strike out on their own if they chose. They were independent under law and accountable for their actions where prior someone else was always held responsible.
They held smaller ceremonies, or so I was told. I had never seen them for myself. For the ruling houses these ceremonies were elaborate things, steeped in ritual. I spent yesterday fasting and purging my body of impurities. This morning, I woke before dawn and was ritually bathed and dressed in undyed linen. IAs I was born after the summer’s heat faded and the autumn chill took hold I wished for a heavier garment, but that was not allowed so I at least thanked the gods that I was not born in the depths of winter’s chill and hid my discomfort behind a pleasant mask. After being dressed, I walked barefoot along the path from the sacred baths to the temple. I spoke the words of petition and was sent here to wait, to meditate on my future, the pray for guidance while the ritual was prepared in the main chamber.
Alone and kneeling on the floor, I felt the hard marble as an ache beneath my knees and the chill of the beautiful but cold stone room. It was lined with white marble tiles, columns and statues, each decorated with gold adornments. I always thought of gold as warm, trapped sunlight. Now, as the sun crested the sky and I waited, it seemed cold, stealing the warmth from the room and locking it deep within.
‘’Not the meditation and praying I am supposed to do,’ I reminded myself. The problem was that there were no ritual words for this part of the ceremony. There was no passage to memorize or recite. I was supposed to reflect generally and I found my thoughts wandering.
Ten til Midnight 