“I will try. I know some desman rites from a friend back in Mgnamar. I’m not sure if they are completely right but hopefully the effort may be appreciated?”
He nods. "Lets move the body to a more peaceful setting. Probably best to avoid this place of violence." He points to a small grove of Ash trees a few dozen yards away. "How about over there? I will join you in prayer, Zak. Even though I am not familiar with Desman rites I can offer prayers to Iomedae I don't think he would mind."
This was all new for the elf. Normally on the streets if you came across a body you'd just rifle through the pockets and let someone else clean it up. Never had she ever seen anyone put so much care into a corpse. She watched in fascination. And a little queasily especially when the body became distended in the transfer.
She stood with Selaim and watched. She knew that when she was involved in a fight, what remained was a pile of ash, rather than a body. So this was all new to her too.
Zak pulls out his coin pouch and, looking at the sky above, starts placing the coins in a pattern around the bones.
“The constellation “The Stair of Stars’ points the way to the Pole Star, Cynosure … which is, at least in theory the home of Desna herself. Hopefully it can likewise point the attention of Desna towards him, and he will have her with Pharasma to find whatever peace he can find.”
He says at the body.
“May you find in death the peace that was denied you at the end of your life, and the freedom that both he whom I revere and Desna the great Dreamer hold sacred.”
He then leans over and whispers a few words in a voice unheard.
He watches silently, and with interest, as Zak performs a rite for the deceased. He doesn't interfere, not being familiar with Desna, although he will offer prayers to Iomedae this evening for the slain man. He knows a little of Desna, though not much more than the required study of all of the Gods that his orders training provided. So he knows she represents one of the good Deities, and he seems to recall something about Zak's God and Desna having had a child together, but the details escape him at the moment.
**Perhaps that explains why Zak knows some about Desna's rites?**
Once Zak is finished he says to the group, "Once we finish eating I will perform a vigil over the body to guard it from disturbance."
Selaim scrunches her eyes at that last part. "Darn you princeling." She thinks. Then walks off taking the shovel back to the family who loaned it to her,
She head back to the cooking fire they left when searching for Coral and checks on the food that was left there. (Placing the pot back on the cook fire she finishes cooking the meal.
She's quiet and reflective. Aendell didn't yell at her for the weapons and Zak seemed nice. Something must be wrong with them.
While the food is cooking she retrieves her scabbards and puts them on then retrieves the hand crossbow that she spent too much gold for. No point in hiding them anymore she thought. He didn't seem to mind that she had them even though she wasn't supposed to have weapons.
Checking on the cooking stew she stops. Then rushes back to the others.
He was sitting cross-legged gazing up at the night sky. His voice tone stays even and somewhat on the soft side.
“Sitting right next to the stewpot. In the small wooden box. You are welcome to whatever you wish from them. They’re labeled. Be wary of the red cap. It is extra spicy, unless you like that sort of thing.”
She lay on her back on the ground, hands behind her head, face looking skyward, eyes closed. She felt the warmth of the cooking fire bathe that side of her body with warmth. Even without opening her eyes she could imagine the flames of the fire flickering up from the wood to the pot. She picked out the sound of the flames amongst the sporadic conversation between Selaim and Zak. She picked out the smell of the burning wood amongst the smell of the cooking food. She knew that she had been her usual proflagate self, and she needed relax and rest.
Scooping some of the stew into a bowl, he examines Zak's spices and adds some salt, pepper, and a bit of crumbled green leaves he sees labeled as 'Oregano'. He takes the bowl back to where the corpse lies and sits cross-legged on the ground a few feet away. He savors the stew, clearing his mind of distractions by concentrating on the flavors. Once he finishes, he lays the bowl and spoon aside, and then takes out his sword and lays it across his lap. Taking the metallic sun symbol on the chain around his neck, he ties it into an intricate knot across the sword's pommel. Then moving to his knees, he places the sword on the ground, the tip pointing to the body, the pommel knob pointing back towards him.
Closing his eyes, he begins to go though the intricate prayers for the dead that he learned in the Paladinate. They are fairly long, although they can be shortened if time is of the essence. It involves asking Iomedae's blessing for a fallen good being and that his journey to the afterlife is easy and quick. It goes thru Iomedae's focus, from Honor to Justice, Rulership, and Valor and then moves on to her Domains: Glory, Good, Law, Sun, War. Once thru the cycle, it repeats with varying amounts of details for the departed. In this case, as they know very little of him, it is fairly generic.
As much as she was normally annoyed with the paladin and the gnome, When Selaim went back to the stew pot she only added a little bit of salt and pepper to the stew. She knew it was a little bland but learned the hard way not to over season a meal. That beating had been severe. She watched as Aendell added a few items to the stew then went over to see what the green stuff was. "Oregano" it said on the bottle. So that could go well with stew she thought. She got herself a bowl and tasted it. Bland true. But edible. She added some of the Oregano along with the salt and pepper. Pleased at the taste then sat to enjoy her meal.
At Selain's gentle nudge he opened her eyes and sat up. She helped herself to a bowl of food, and quietly enjoyed food that had been prepared by someone else.
She thanked the others for preparing it, and when all had finished, took it upon herself to clean up everything as her contribution to the meal.
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