Compendium (31 page)

Where the floor was usually open and displaying the spectacularly inlaid design of an elder arboreal, today seats were arranged in neat rows facing the dais, with a central aisle between the rows. Gourds were placed all around, bathing the room in a soft, golden light, and bunches of curling vines bursting with flowering colors were placed along the dais and podium.

The clerics obviously had taken pains to arrange this ceremony. Cedar’s thick hair and brown skin caught Mia’s eye from a distance, and her breath caught in her chest at the patch strapped over his ruined eye. Part of her wanted to run to him and throw her arms around him, while another part wanted to run from him and hide from the damage she had wrought. He sat stiffly and nodded occasionally as others spoke to him. Mia looked away lest he feel her eyes boring a hole in the back of his head.

The Order wasn’t an organization to make merry with music and dancing, and this event was no different. Dominus Nikola, Brother Cornelius, and Brother SainClair assumed their positions on the dais as a signal that the proceedings were about to begin. The other senior clerics seated themselves behind them. Mia cleared her throat nervously and wrung her hands in her robes. Sister Valencia had dropped off the darker, softer robes of a full cleric for her to wear to the ceremony, but Mia was currently without a sash or pin. She fingered the heavy egg shape of her mother’s locket, turned the little tab at the top to expose the sigil within, and peered at the somber owl springing forth from the lotus flower. With Compendium gone, this was her only rendering of the SainClair family crest. She twisted the locket closed, tucked the delicate leafy chain back into her tunic, and patted it against her chest.

“Good morning to you all,” Dominus Nikola called out to the assembly. “I trust we’re all in good spirits as we welcome into our ranks a new cleric of the Order. We’re gathered this morning to bestow upon Mia Jayne SainClair the rank of cleric. Is Ms. SainClair present among you?”

Mia entered the room upon this cue and stood at the threshold. This part of the ceremony was scripted.

“I, Mia Jayne SainClair, am present to receive the honor bestowed upon me,” she said, wrestling with her voice to keep it steady and natural sounding.

“Then come forward, Ms. SainClair, to make your vow and take your place among us,” the Dominus said.

His face appeared serious, but his gray eyes held a spark of warmth deep within. Mia straightened her back and walked deliberately and proudly to the front of the room. Any residual guilt that struggled to well up as she passed the faces staring intently at her was pushed into the depths. She would make this vow and do her part. The past was the past. When she arrived at the base of the dais, she turned.

“I have come now to make this vow to all of you,” Mia stated.

Sitting in the front row, Cedar lifted his head, his face still ashen beneath his light-brown skin. His remaining eye, large and dark, was fixed on her, but his face was stony and unreadable. Her heart withered at the sight. She turned and climbed the stairs of the dais to stand before Dominus Nikola. He placed his hand on her right shoulder, where her sash and pin would lay.

“Do you, Mia Jayne SainClair, vow to serve the Order in all things from this moment until your last breath?”

“I do,” she stated.

“And will you treat those here as your own brothers and sisters, your family for life, from this moment until your last breath?”

“I will.”

“And do you now accept the responsibility to spend your life and time in this world in the preservation of Lumin and its flora through study, scholarship, reflection, ingenuity, and combat, if necessary?”

“I do.”

“Now,” he said, “will Brother Thaddeus SainClair step forward?”

SainClair rose from his chair to the left of Dominus Nikola’s and proceeded to a nearby table. On the table was laid a sash and pin. Mia hadn’t noticed it from the back of the room. SainClair lifted the sash and pin and strode over to stand next to the Dominus.

“Thaddeus SainClair, are you willing to vouch for this acolyte’s character and fitness to ascend to the rank of full cleric among us?” Dominus Nikola asked.

“I am,” replied SainClair, his icy-blue eyes resting on Mia’s aqua ones. The corner of his mouth curved into a small smile, although he remained largely motionless before the Dominus.

“You may now bestow upon her the rank.” Dominus Nikola took his hand from Mia’s shoulder and gestured to the sash.

SainClair held up the sash and draped it around Mia’s hip and up over her right shoulder. She was reminded of her first day here when Cedar similarly draped her sash for the first time. She stood motionless as he held the fabric in place with his right hand and deftly pinned it to the tunic with his left. Mia let her eyes wander to her shoulder even as her head pointed forward. Her acolyte pin had been replaced with a shiny gold pin bearing an elder tree filled with fruit.

“I had this one made specially for you,” SainClair whispered near her ear. “Look.”

Mia turned her head and looked down at her shoulder. Her uncle grasped the pin and tugged gently. The center, where the tree resided, flipped in an outer ring in which it was set. The other side was an engraving of the SainClair sigil, the owl and lotus gleaming in gold. Mia’s eyes watered, and she took a deep breath, determined not to cry. She gave her uncle a tremulous smile, and he winked at her as he grasped his own pin and flipped it similarly.

“I love you,” she mouthed silently. He winked again and stepped back next to Dominus Nikola.

“And so, Sister SainClair, you’ve made your vows and assumed your obligations to us, your family, and so we now vow to you as follows.”

Then the whole room spoke as one, their voices resonating along the walls and filling Mia’s ears and her heart.

“As you have given your vow to serve us, we vow to serve you. As you are now linked to us as family, we are now your family. As you now dedicate your life to service of the realm, you add your voice to ours, and we are one. Welcome, Sister SainClair!”

The room applauded and cheered. Hoots filled the air, and Mia broke out into a huge smile and blinked back the tears that continued to threaten. SainClair stepped forward and embraced her in a hug, and the warmth of his arms enclosed her. Dominus Nikola and Brother Cornelius clapped behind him, and the voices of the others clamored their congratulations. Mia was finally home among family.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alia Luria lives in Orlando, Florida, with her partner and their two Pembroke Welsh Corgis, neither of which is named Hamish. When she isn’t writing far-flung tales, she practices corporate and privacy law.

Visit
alialuria.com
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@alia
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Ocularum
, the next book in the Artifacts of Lumin series.

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