Advent Calendar - 11th December 2008
Candlelight
by Leesa Perrie
Set Season 1
Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading.
For much of her life the night had been lit by stars or moons or fire,
with candlelight her favourite of these. The warm glow reminded
her of pleasant evenings spent with family and friends, passing on the
old tales, making up new ones, or singing songs and dancing.
Yet candles were so much more than just a light in the darkness and
memories of belonging. They were also full of symbols, used in
the ceremonies of her people with each colour and each scent having a
place, a meaning, and she cherished this most of all.
Yellow scented with liddin blossom was used to celebrate the birth of a
child. Red scented with the rich smell of lavilna, a rare and heady
flower, was used for the Bonding Ceremony. Green scented with
hako, a fragrance not unlike freshly tilled soil, was used at the time
of planting. Blue scented with kuri fruit was used at the time of
harvest. White scented with the pure clean smell of kivim was used for
the Ring Ceremony, and was forever linked with the tears of mourning in
her mind.
Then there were the cream ones that held no special scent, for daily
use. Plain, and yet so vital as lights in their homes, especially
on the darkest of nights, when no moon or stars shone down upon
them.
But here in her new home, it was not candlelight that lit her room at
night. Instead, the foreign and bright Ancestral lights of the city
did, flowing through her window in a disconcerting manner that made it
hard to sleep. Heavy drapes would have solved the problem, yet
something kept her from adding them. Perhaps it was a wish to
embrace the city with all its inherent strangeness; to adapt to her new
chosen path.
The day she awoke to a light that no longer seemed so bright or
strange, she knew that even with her people living on the Mainland, so
near and yet so far from her, this was the place she was meant to be;
her new home.
