Duty to Olmgra and Family, Part I
Three Years Ago
Sirshi sat in her room and stared out the window. There was nothing else to do. Her parents had discovered her stockpile of books about the temples of Skwyr and confiscated them. She wasn’t allowed to leave until she “saw reason”. She saw reason just fine, it was her parents that couldn’t see it.
Her stomach growled. She felt lightheaded, but every time she thought about eating, she remembered how at home she felt in the Temple of the Rising Sun. She would get her way. If not, her parents wouldn’t have to deal with what a disappointment they thought she was.
Someone knocked on her door. She ignored it.
“Sirshi,” her mother called. “Sirshi, come and eat.”
Sirshi looked at the second bed in her room. Ekla always got what she wanted. She was a master knight, but still they left her bed made in case she ever wanted to stay with them. If they ever got rid of Sirshi, she knew her bed would be gone the next day.
“You’re not becoming a priest,” her mother called. “Give up and come eat. You haven’t had anything all day, you must be hungry by now.”
I can outlast you, mother. You and father.
Her mother tried the door again, but the shelf Sirshi had pushed against it held.
“Open this door!”
Sirshi lied back in her bed. Her parents had been at this all day, and they’d gotten nowhere. She was determined to outlast them, and she knew she could.
“Come out and eat!” her father yelled, taking over.
She’d stopped talking to them days ago when they’d told her she was going to be an apprentice knight instead of an apprentice priest like she wanted. They’d stormed her room and taken her books. She was forbidden from going to the temples anymore, not that they’d known that she was going before she’d told them. They didn’t care about her. They were too busy fawning over Ekla. Their favorite daughter. She and Ekla didn’t even have the same mother, but you’d never know from watching their family.
Sirshi thought about the temple and wondered if Master Moudren was there. Only the head priest stayed there all day, but Master Moudren helped tend everything. Maybe she was still there. And there was all the practice they had to do, remembering the rites and rituals to pay homage to Olmgra. Everything her parents said was a waste of time.
Olmgra gave her hope. Hope that her parents would give in and let her become an apprentice priest. Hope that she could be like Master Moudren some day. She wanted to be Master Moudren’s apprentice, and she held onto that hope, no matter how unlikely it was. Ekla had dreams too; she went on about how she wanted to be Lady True Knight one day, like her master, the current Lord True Knight, or maybe even queen. If Ekla could have dreams, why couldn’t Sirshi?
Present Day
The one part about being a priest of Olmgra that Sirshi didn’t like was having to wake up so early. She kept thinking she would get used to it, but she still wanted to hurl her identification orb across the room.
“Stupid bauble!” she shouted at it when it went off that morning. She still climbed out of bed and got ready, lest she be late and disappoint Master Moudren. It’d taken her a few days into her apprenticeship to get over her impulse to be late to spite her parents, but when Master Moudren was disappointed in her, it really got to her.
She hurried through the corridors, not caring if anyone shouted at her to stop running. When she arrived at the temple, Master Moudren was waiting for her.
“I’m here!” Sirshi shouted as she came to a stop. “I’m not late!”
She stopped to catch her breath.
“Good morning, Apprentice Sirshi,” Master Moudren said in her calm, kind voice. “Please put your robes on and meet me in my office. You’re not in trouble, but I have something about which I’d like to talk to you.”
Sirshi went to the storeroom with all the robes in it. She picked hers out and pulled it over herself. The blue and gold patterns glittered in the orblight as she adjusted the sleeves. If anything wasn’t straight (she always missed something), Master Moudren would tell her, but not like her parents did.
She pushed her parents out of her mind as she walked. They weren’t her problem anymore; like Ekla, they wouldn’t dare step foot in a temple.
“Master Moudren.” Sirshi stood at attention in Master Moudren’s office. Books lined the shelves behind Master Moudren’s desk. A picture of Olmgra smiled down on everyone who entered, illuminated by orbs around the small room.
“Thank you for coming,” Master Moudren said. She stood up and started adjusting Sirshi’s robes. “I wanted to talk to you about Apprentice Roshil. That was very kind the way you stood up for her yesterday.”
Sirshi held up her arms to keep them out of Master Moudren’s way. “Oh. Thanks.”
Hearing Kurgm lie about Roshil like that had brought up her parents again.
The temples don’t do anything for the court.
The deities never help us, so why waste time on them?
Maybe that’s why she’d been thinking about them again. She clamped down on it, trying to keep her anger down. Why did Kurgm have to drag it up again?
“Master Ekla sends her apologies for her apprentice,” Master Moudren said as she finished fixing Sirshi’s robes. “I know she’s not your favorite person, but she did sound sorry.”
“Well, that makes it all better,” Sirshi muttered, taking her arms down.
“I didn’t ask you here to talk about your sister.”
“Half-sister.”
“Of course. I don’t think you notice the way Apprentice Roshil is around you.”
“That’s just how she is. There’s nothing wrong with her.”
“I never said there was. I meant, I believe she has feelings for you.”
“What? No, she doesn’t. She just likes fixing things.”
“Perhaps you should talk to her, just to make sure.”
“Okay.” Sirshi wasn’t convinced that anyone liked her that way, but if Master Moudren thought so, there was bound to be a reason. This was already the best conversation about her and dating she’d ever had. All the others had included some variation on the phrase “How are you ever going to find a man to marry you when you act like that?”
Even better than that, Master Moudren didn’t ask her about boys. Sirshi’s parents had started asking her when she turned 11, and the answer had always been the same: No. They didn’t pester Ekla like that, so why did they have to pester her? No one had ever caught her eye, but her parents refused to accept that. As always, they assumed she was lying to them, and scolded her for it.
Sirshi pushed them out of her head again and focused on the Sun Welcoming Ceremony and Roshil. Roshil wouldn’t be upset if Sirshi said she wasn’t interested, would she? Since when did Sirshi start to care about upsetting people when she talked to them?
Well, Roshil is my only friend. Also Oshal.
After the Sun Welcoming Ceremony, Sirshi helped clear away the spare mats, then grabbed a broom to start sweeping the floor.
“Sirshi?”
Kurgm was standing next to her, smiling for some reason. Maybe it was the ceremony. It always put Sirshi in a better mood.
“I’m sorry about yesterday.”
“What? Oh, sure.”
She started sweeping the floor, hoping he’d leave if she ignored him, but he didn’t.
“I was… Aonva’s been off since what Roshil did, and I thought it might be some lingering effect.”
“Really.”
“Yeah, it was scary when it happened. I thought she might be in trouble, and then she seemed so different, and there was this whole thing after that.”
Sirshi swept dust into a pile, wondering if she could do the same to Kurgm.
“I thought there might’ve been more to it that Roshil hadn’t said.”
Sirshi nearly responded, but something told her that if she did, he’d only keep talking. At least he was aware enough to step out of her way.
“I don’t know if anyone’s told you, but be careful about talking about the dragon that cursed her,” he said, keeping his voice down.
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
“Good. I mean… I’m still annoyed at her, but Master Ekla says it’s important.”
“Well, if she said so…”
He glanced at the door that led to the castle. “I should be going. Thanks for listening.”
“Make today a bright day,” she said automatically.
“Yeah.” Kurgm smiled. “You too.”
As Sirshi finished up her chores, she wondered about Roshil. Roshil couldn’t have feelings for her. No one had feelings for her. It made life simple, which was just how Sirshi liked her life. Why did anyone have to have feelings for her and make things complicated? Or at least it could’ve been someone she’d never met, so she could tell them off without feeling bad. Actually, when had she ever felt bad about telling someone off? Was being afraid of hurting someone’s feelings a normal friend thing?
If I had other friends, maybe I’d know. Oshal’s sort of a friend, and I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
She’d thought she and Kurgm were sort of friends, but she’d yelled at him without concern last night at dinner. Then again, the way he was treating Roshil, he was asking for it.
She put away the cleaning supplies, then took off her robe. She was about to leave when Master Moudren intercepted her with a letter in her hand.
“This just arrived for you.”
Sirshi took the letter and opened it. She had a bad feeling about this. No one ever wrote to her.
Sirshi,
Your mother and I have talked, and decided that it’s time you forgot about this nonsense of becoming a priest. We understand that you’re a teenager and that cries for attention are normal (although they weren’t for your sister), but this has gone on long enough.
You don’t have to leave the castle if you don’t want to, but if you stay, you must change specializations. You have two days to decide what you want to do instead. Why not be a knight like your sister?
Your Father