Challenge #04757-M008: To Join Her Cause

"Oh great Mistress Dark, hear me please. I wish to follow your will."/ ~And what will do you seek to follow?~
"To give solace and comfort to the dying, to let them know you wait to be their guide."/ ~Where do I guide them?~
"To the next life, to Rebirth, to what their lives have earned, or lessons they need to learn, with you, they never walk in darkness alone."/ ~You are a wise one, young human, I will grant you my blessing.~ -- Lessons

Some gods do not have large and fancy temples. Some have rituals in the middle of the night. Stories whispered to the acolytes. Some gods are the ones you pray never notice you. One of those only answers one prayer: Not today.

Mortals do not seek her out. They rarely speak her name. Well. They prefer not to.

Chaia had done their research, found where to go and what to say. Journeyed through the Vingate catacombs according to the sacred rhymes. At the end of the stanzas, they found the altar and the effigy made from the bones of those who had once prayed to her.

It was there, trusting and in faith, that Chaia extinguished all lights, and said her oath.

Why do you come to me?

"I come to seek your blessing."

What do you seek to do once you have it?

"To guide lost souls to peace, to give rest to the lost and wandering. To ease those in their final moments into your arms. And of course to give comfort and aid to the living left behind. In your service, I seek all these things."

Then find your way to the light alone and in faith, and I shall bless you.

Ah. This was the test. To make a light now was to renounce the protection of the dark, and thereby Mistress Dark. The rhyme got you there. You had to be smart enough and brave enough to make it back out on your own.

"Thou will'st it, and it shall be done," said Chaia. There was nothing in the dark that had not been there in the light. The staff they had brought down as part of the ritual now became a seeing cane.

Chaia found the altar, the walls of the chamber, and the door they entered by. They felt their way on the path in, tracing it back the way they had come. Reciting the rhyme in their head in diminishing repetitions.

When the stair and the sun finally made an appearance, Chaia did not run for it. That would cause them trouble, as there were still ways to trip or stumble on the rough floors. Wits, even in the rush of gratitude, were important. Chaia could show their goddess that they could remain in control no matter what their emotional load was.

Into the light of day and returning to the land of the living, Chaia felt a cloak settle on their shoulders. There was nothing physical there. Nothing visible, yet Chaia knew what it was.

The mantle of Her favour, the sensation of her blessing.

They were now a faithful subject of the Goddess of Death. Chaia would be working on Her will for a week or so before the feather of a crow or raven would come to her hand. That would be her holy symbol.

Mistress Dark didn't truly need temples, though graveyards, catacombs, and charnel houses became them. She was, after all, everywhere.

[Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash]

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