toku matsudaira, geezermancer (giri) wrote in emillion, @ 2014-04-27 14:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | !group thread, bram thornton, elvira treveil, ofelia zhou, toku matsudaira |
Who: Mages’ Guild Council & Guild members
What: A funeral for the fallen mages.
Where: The Grand Cathedral.
When: Saturday morning, 4/26
Rating: PG-13 for mentions of death (rate sub-threads appropriately)
Status: OPEN.
The ceremony was a somber affair. Those of the Guild not too injured to move had gathered in the Cathedral to mourn their fallen comrades, good men and women who had given their lives to defend the city, whose sacrifice would be honored only by their kin. An extended family bowed their heads under the dome of the Grande Cathedral and listened to the priest’s words commending their loved ones’ souls to the embrace of Faram. Even those who did not subscribe to the Pharist doctrine mouthed prayers, for the sight of their guildmates’ coffins (some of them empty, where bodies had been too damaged to be retrieved) fueled the need to believe in a higher being that could throughout eternity take good care of their friends, where their flesh-and-blood kin had failed. Many came to the fore to speak words in honor of the fallen. All of them had prepared their speech beforehand, and all of them clung to the paper in their hands as though it may become a shield to keep them from the reality they found themselves in. Several had to be led back to their seat in tears. The Council spoke as well, as was their duty, and every word was accompanied by the certainty that nothing they said could ease the pain and grief of those gathered before them. Yet once again, words, and the vows to ensure the tragedy would never repeat itself, were all that was left to them. Speaking about those brave souls who had given their lives for the city was hard; speaking about the one that had caused the tragedy to occur in the first place, Toku found, was nigh impossible. Later, he would not remember the words he had spoken about the Sage. He would take with him only the faces of those before him. Some were angry, some sad, some still wondered why. He could do nothing but convey his respect for the woman she had been, and his grief for the way she would be remembered, for her rage and madness rather than her wisdom and kindness. Yet as he spoke, he knew he had already mourned her loss; had done so the day he had seen her poised on the shoulder of a giant beast of chaos, and known that she was gone. Many had questions to ask; about the Sage, about the tragedy, about the trustworthiness of the Guild. For the moment, the Council had no answers for those questions; no answers for their guild members, no answers for the public, and no answers for the fighters that had volunteered to keep their Guild safe on this sad day. They had no answers yet, but they would―and when they spoke them, they would do so aware that all the answers in the world would never be able to take away the damage that had already been done. |