Hope for the Future, Part I
After the last of the worshipers left the Flower Blooming Ceremony, Sirshi, along with a few other apprentice priests, cleaned up after the ceremony. Sirshi didn’t know any of their names, nor did she particularly care. While Master Moudren was the head priest of Skwyr Court’s temple, other priests served as well, trading off days for the Sun Welcoming Ceremony every morning, and performing other ceremonies, like welcoming newborns into the temple. As such, she occasionally ran into the other priests and their apprentices, but she’d never had to learn the other apprentices’ names. Sirshi considered this a point of pride.
After they were finished clearing the temple and putting everything back where it belonged, the other priests left with their apprentices. Sirshi made her way to Master Moudren’s office, where the woman herself was waiting for her.
Master Moudren smiled and stood up.
“You did a good job today with the Flower Blooming Ceremony,” she said. “When you go on your fifth-year assignment, you will be in charge of the ceremony, and I think you’re well on your way to being prepared for it.”
Sirshi bowed, feeling her face flush a little.
“Thank you, Master Moudren.”
Master Moudren returned to the seat at her desk.
“Did you get along with the other apprentices?”
Sirshi nodded, her mind still on the Flower Blooming Ceremony. She’d managed to stay calm through the entire ceremony, which she thought was an accomplishment, considering neither Roshil nor Aonva had opted to go. Roshil had been worried about the previous year, and Aonva had refused to go without Roshil.
“How are your friends?” Master Moudren asked. “I didn’t see either of them there. I hope Apprentices Roshil and Aonva know they are always welcome in Olmgra’s house.”
“We welcome them,” Sirshi muttered.
“Have other people been causing them problems?”
Sirshi had a clear memory of the previous year. Being nervous about helping with the ceremony, but seeing a crowd of people cast her friends out. She’d wanted to scream at them to get lost, but she was certain that wasn’t okay.
“Yeah, but that’s how people are.” Sirshi felt her temper rising, and tried to keep it in check. “People avoid them at meals, harass them when they think no one’s looking, treat them both like they’re—”
“If either girl is having problems,” Master Moudren said, a frown on her face, “I would hope Our Lord High Artisan or Master Kaernin would be made aware of this.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t think either of them wants to cause problems.” Sirshi folded her arms. “And neither will tell me who’s giving them problems. I’ll make sure it stops.”
“With a strongly worded lecture, I hope.”
The way Master Moudren said that caused Sirshi to realize she was getting angry again. She unfolded her arms and sat up straight.
“So long as they know that we welcome them here, and that’s all that matters. Moving on, there’s something else I’d like to discuss.”
“Something else I’d like to discuss” sounded like “Something else Sirshi needs to be doing”, which sounded like more work. Had she been forgetting something? Sirshi couldn’t think of anything, but maybe there was something about which she’d forgotten. Her parents had always found something about which she’d forgotten. Not to shout at the table, not to talk at the table, not to show her face when company was over, not to talk back to her parents, not to talk back to her sister, not to talk at all…
“Each temple provides assistance to the community in some way. The priests of Yvgrengher provide access to books and literature, priests of Melndn help people live with fear, and priests of Rendlok assist artisans in construction.”
Sirshi nodded. This all sounded familiar to her. She’d served at each of the temples, even if she had already known where she’d wanted to be.
“I remember.”
“Good. Do you remember what priests of Olmgra are supposed to do?”
“Spread hope in the community.”
Master Moudren smiled, but not like other adults smiled. When they smiled, it was because they were about to load up Sirshi with extra work because she’d made a mistake, or because they were delighted by how miserable Sirshi was about to be. Master Moudren was proud of her. No one else had ever been proud of her for anything.
“Very good. Given that people aren’t your expertise, I wanted to talk about ways in which we can spread hope.”
Sirshi sat and listened as Master Moudren gave her an overview of various ways in which priests spread hope. A lot of it was dealing with other peoples’ problems, assuring them that it wasn’t the end of the world, and that they could keep pushing forward no matter what.
That began to worry Sirshi. She wasn’t any good at any of it. She didn’t like listening to other peoples’ problems, despite often listening to those of Roshil or Aonva. In that matter, she rarely had a choice, apart from moving away from her friends at meals, and she didn’t care enough. She ate and half listened to them talk, knowing that eventually the other would chime in and all Sirshi had to do was agree with something. At least, that’s how it went when Aonva had some sort of problem, usually involving a textbook she’d only read ten times, and was afraid that she needed to read it ten more in order to be prepared.
When Sirshi left that morning for class, she still wasn’t certain about it. But she knew she needed to. It was the responsibility of a priest of Olmgra to spread hope in the community. Why did it have to be that? Why couldn’t their community service have been leaving people in the community alone?
She couldn’t let Master Moudren down, though. She had to start learning how to bring hope to people. One day, she’d be a priest of Olmgra, and that would be part of it.
Unless not being able to meant she couldn’t be a priest.