Chương 330: 5.9

Jewel tried to focus on the joy in the air. The smell of sweat of a last day's labor in the fields. On the good that had come of her friend's sacrifice. The richness of the quality in what breads had been baked with the excess beyond the more traditional last year's stores. The Ashes of Bethica's blood, bone, heart and viscera had been changed. A divine touch cut through every flake and grain of the gray powder. A sorcerous artifact made of them.

Celsus insisted that a portion of it be given to the family that had raised her. Jewel had accepted but only if it was secured in her manor house under careful guard lest the family be endangered for their wealth. A powerful gift of divine providence. The village's priest had agreed insistently with her, for her friend's remnants had been made into a dangerously useful miracle. Whatever earth was touched by Bethica's ashes fostered plants at twice the vigor and speed of the soil without.

Clover noticeably grew under observation after a summer rain on such blessed land. The few fields and gardens the family had sprinkled a pinch onto had grown to such an abundance the rest of the village and neighboring hamlets had to be called on to eat the abundance before it spoiled! All from barely the gritty ash that fit between a man's thumb and forefinger, a brief but immeasurably precious boon upon any land touched by it.

The burnt remains of her friend were a treasure greater than its weight in gold many times over! All the more for how it did not come with a curse upon the land to follow its gifted abundance. The blessing of Bethica's ashes were brief and powerful. But without lingering risk or cost as so often followed such sorcery, divine or otherwise. A safe miracle!

With the power of even a few handfuls of the divinely touched ash this year's harvest in Valasect had been so prodigious that laborers had to be called up from all the neighboring villages in Rochford and beyond! Jewel herself had stood watch over the fields blessed and felt the heaven's presence. It drew a briar of divine cuts through the earth and plants the day after it was used. Leaving intricate scars of the harvest god's passing.

But the wheat, veches, and grazing from the grasses for all the divine touch was all of a quality that made her people joyous. All that was fed by Bethica's remains seemed enriched and made better for it! Jewel tried to ignore the whisper in her heart that even this was not worth the price that had been paid. She had her duty to the people of Valasect, a place in the summer harvest earned over difficult years of slow accommodation and entreating with their local gods. Earned through gentle nudging and soothing.

And now this year welcomed wholly and totally as they had felt the bounty of her and their friend's sacrifice. Yet another gift from Bethica. Jewel focused on the good and joy that the cow had brought with her death. Taking in a breath of the late evening air and the anticipation surrounding her in the teeming crowd. The Shining Wyrm of Viznove took up her place under the god tree of Valasect, standing before the altar where a friend had given up whatever years she had yet to live.

And spoke out to the peasants and travelers, entertainers and peddlers, minor nobles and priests. The Summer Harvest Festival in Valasect had grown far beyond what Rochford ever had witnessed. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Growth that did raise her spirits but not enough to overwhelm her sorrow. It was not like the times when Jewel joined the now traditional variation in Kaeketeh later in the year.

That festival had changed into such a fevered event that she honestly could ill afford to indulge in even being near the city for fear of getting utterly swallowed in the proverbial cup. Although Paul insisted they go in the years Jewel was being 'particularly moody'. How the city's celebrations affected Jewel had also spread among the city and this knowledge only seemed to encourage an even more feverish revelry on her attendance. But this was not that intoxicating tumult.

No, Valasect was full of revelry and drew in guests from neighboring villages and her own vassal's families. But it was nowhere near as intense. The five weddings Jewel oversaw that afternoon fed into the anticipation of the air though. Jewel could smell it on the newly weds. There were going to be dances of an entirely different kind than the carola that night. There were going to be children from those unions next year, the stars willing. It made the weight in her own belly shift ominously.

She was pretty sure that Gem had not taken this long to be born. Nevermind hatch, but here Jewel was, feeling so uncomfortably gravid. But she had her place to be here and now. Among her people, with a duty as their lady and countess. The familiar words came to her, effortlessly. As if they were already hanging in the air, awaiting her to realize them in her throat." The Hungry Summer has passed. And by your labors we have prospered!" She walked forward, Gem and Jewel united.

The wyrm resplendent in her own scales, the color of the best wheat grains in their harvest. Her spawn in a light and airy mass of cloth that despite its voluminous yards could sweep and sway with many places for wind to pass and cool her." Together we have hungered through the summer and lived. Together we have remembered those that could not be with us by our own hunger." Jewel did not lose control of her voice, but the tears were warring to break free in her eyes. There were many faces that were sombre.

Bethica was a fixture of the village, known to many for her care and stories." I swear to you as your countess and lady, that I will always hunger with you. That I will stand for you, I will strike back against all your enemies. Be they hunger or thieves, beasts or lairspawn, wyrm or despoilers." Jewel shifted in her place, she lowered the ceremonial torch, a bound thing of herbal offerings and wood made sacred. She lowered it to catch in the equally ostentatious pyre.

The divinity of the fire sparking in colors of blue and green as well as the usual dancing oranges, yellows and hints of red." I will guard you, I will be here, until my last breath! Let us now revel, for the hungry summer is over and we still stand!" The flames rose up into the sky, and the tension in the air was thick with the longing of men and women for one another. Newly wed youth eager for what was to come." Now Eat and Be Merry!" Jewel took up the black wheat cake and swallowed it whole as her wyrmself.

Gem had a carefully crusted piece of pork for herself. The absolutely maximum amount of grain her spawn could stomach. And then it was time. The dance was joined, the feasting began. Jewel joined them for a time, Gem whirling and chortling among them. She swept among the carolla as her larger self like a river of shining scales and bristling mane.

But a sudden and sharp shift in her body forced Jewel to draw back and away, catching the eye of Paul who was shaky but handling his black bread with the grace borne from years of practice. It took a moment to be sure she had his attention. When Jewel was sure she did, only a single utterance was needed for him.

"Paul! It's time!" The serendipity of it made her ache in more ways than one. The addle minded shock on Paul's face was followed by a too hard nod and he swayed his way over towards Muriel, who was drinking heavily from the honey wine as was her usual after the harvest. Jewel trusted her husband and captain to inform the rest of her closest council. There was a much more urgent matter for the Shining Wyrm of Viznove. She had to get inside before the eggs slipped free in the middle of the dance!

That would be absolutely mortifying!