Missandra was still weeping silently. Cassandra kept hugging her and caressing her hair until she calmed down. This may have been a bit too much for her. It brought back painful memories of a time where their friends and family were alive, and they were both living very differently. Missandra had lied, stolen, and hurt other people, and hearing the whole prayer again made her feel ashamed and disgusted in herself.
As the ceremony was over, Kareen ordered for them to move to another room to sit comfortably and rest for a bit while the servants brought large trays of food once again. It was something like brunch probably, as it wasn’t really early enough or late enough for a proper meal. To help everyone warm-up, some tea was brought and Missandra insisted on being the one to prepare it and serve it to everyone.
Cassandra sat on a couch with Kairen’s arm around her shoulders as she snuggled under a large fur blanket. She hadn’t really realized how cold she was until then. However, she also didn’t want to change into normal clothes yet. She was happy to wear the traditional green of her tribe, even if all of the fake Borean ink had already been washed away by the rain. If it had been real, it would have lasted several hours at least, but it couldn’t be helped. Cassandra kept caressing the little silver thread around her wrist, feeling a bit numb with happiness.
Meanwhile, Shareen was gazing at Missandra, frowning a bit. The young girl’s tears had dried, but her eyes were still red and she would sniffle from time to time.
“What were you crying for? Marrying your sister away?” she asked.
Missandra answered with a glare, though she quickly stopped to go back to preparing the tea. Kareen slapped her daughter’s thigh, frowning.
“You insensitive Daughter! When did I raise you to be so heartless?”
“Do I have to answer that?”
Shareen got another slap and shut up after that, only making annoyed faces and sulking on the side.
Aside from Shareen, most people in the room actually understood the real reasons behind Missandra’s tears, though they wouldn’t have been so blunt about it. The prayer they had recited taught about love and being true and selfless. Missandra had lost all of that at a young age and grown into someone far from those ideals. For the first time in a while, she felt sullied by her past as a prostitute, and the thefts she had committed. That ceremony had been too much of a brutal reminder of that.
“Did your parents hold that ceremony too?” asked Lady Kareen, trying to pull the topic away from Missandra as she distributed the tea.
“No... Our father died when our mother was pregnant with Missandra,” confessed Cassandra.
“May I ask how?”
“He was in an accident,” replied Missandra. “Our mother said he died when they were building houses. There was an accident and our father got badly injured.”
“One of the houses they were building became unstable because of a storm. Our father wanted to go and help secure his friend’s house, but it collapsed on them,” said Cassandra. “Our Uncle was there too, and he saw three men die with him. The house collapsed in the river and just... washed them all away. Our mother got the news once it was all over. Only our uncle returned, but he was severely injured. He passed a few hours later.”
“By the Great Dragon,” whispered Kareen. “I can’t imagine how sad your mother must have been.”
Cassandra was about to say something, but a loud growl interrupted her. They all heard Krai land loudly next door, and a few seconds later, Roun too. Its growl was higher-pitched than the Black Dragon’s. Then, little Srai showed up in the room, as the only one small enough to sneak in, and went to curl up at Kareen’s feet, its eyes watching the wall behind where they could hear its siblings bickering again.
“I don’t remember him,” said Cassandra. “Our mother told us about him many times, though. He was one of our tribe’s best architects and he had built our house too.”
“I wish I could see our house again.”
“Maybe you could go there again?” asked Shareen.
Cassandra shook her head.
“It would be very dangerous. The swamps we lived in are now under the Eastern Republic’s territory. I don’t even think there’s anything left of it, they probably destroyed it.”
Missandra nodded sadly. Even Lady Kareen didn’t dare to ask about their old tribe again. She was aware that, despite the fact that their rival had taken over the former tribe’s parcel, it was the war between the Dragon Empire and the Eastern Republic that had destroyed these girls’ homeland.
Somehow, it was only luck that the Dragon Empire hadn’t been the one to destroy the Rain Tribe. If they had, it would have made this conversation even more awkward, and added another gap between Kairen and Cassandra.
This conversation had gone a bit sour after such an intense ceremony. Somehow, the Rain Ceremony had been so solemn, it had brought some deep-buried memories to the surface. The nostalgic feeling that hovered over Cassandra’s heart made her feel a bit bittersweet. For a while, everyone focused on eating, and an awkward silence filled the room until Shareen spoke.
“So... After that ceremony, what is changing, exactly? You mentioned something about giving up your mind, body, and all. Is it for real? That sounded a lot like you two were going to commit suicide.”
Cassandra chuckled.
“No, not at all. It had a deeper meaning than that. The Water God teaches us to not hold on to material things, not even our body.”
“But your mind?”
“It means we have to elevate ourselves from earthly things. We only see through the eyes of those we love. It means we must care about others before ourselves.”
