When Raemund Faeton wakes Vala Silverton is standing at the window with her palm pressed against the shutter, peering through a crack at the broken forms of the ash zombies. She is furiously whispering prayers under her breath, willing something, anything, to answer, but nothing does.
Rae: Rae wakes to see Vala praying and quietly joins her at the window, where he joins Vala in prayer.
Vala: “Thank you, Rae.”Her eyes stay fixed on the darkness beyond the window, where she knows the piles of ash are.
“I pray endlessly to what ends, I’m unsure. Yet, somehow, if the gods are inclined to answer anyone, I believe it would be you. Your light is much cleaner than mine.”
She hesitates for a long moment, then asks.
“These dead, they are not newly made. You can feel that, can’t you? That what happened to them began long before today? Before even the Thayans stole them from their rest.”
Rae: “Yes, Lady Vala, I feel it too. While Thayans may have awoken them, these creatures of ash are part of the land. It is as if the ash from Hotenow’s eruption cursed Thundertree.”He joins her in peering into the darkness.
“May Lathander spare their souls.”
Vala: Her hand falls from the glass and curls into a tight fist.
“When the gods went quiet, the crown told me silence was duty,” she says softly. “I was meant to warn them, but instead I was blind and worse, obedient. I stood by the last Alagondar king's side and pretended, at his behest, that I still heard the gods while the city marched toward its end.”
She exhales, slow and tired, then finally looks at you.
“I do not think I deserve your protection, Rae. But if you would help me place them in the Dawn’s keeping, help them find whatever new beginning awaits, I would be grateful beyond words.”
Rae: Rae turns to Vala, reverence on his face.“You deserve more than my protection. Even in the wilderness, your concern for your people is truly noble. I will pray for the people of Thundertree: May the dawn’s light bring them peaceful eternal sleep.”
His looks of reverence shifts to apprehension.
“I shall pray for the people of Thundertree this dawn. And I hope, tomorrow morning, to watch the sunrise and pray again for the people, out in the open, under the day’s first beams of light.”
Vala: Vala draws a slow breath, steadying herself.“I am not used to goodness that does not come with a ledger,” she says quietly. “It leaves me uncertain where to set my feet. But I am grateful for it. For your faith, and for the way you offer it without asking anything of me in return.”
She smiles at Rae, small and sincere, then hesitates briefly as though weighing something.
“There is one more thing I would ask, if it does not feel improper. When you pray this dawn, I would ask that you add a name.” Her fingers lace together, a familiar, nervous habit. “Amafrey.”
She keeps her gaze averted as she goes on. “I know the Dawn will not reach her, not where she is. But if you would speak her name anyway, if only to set it in the light for a moment, I would be grateful. That would be a mercy, even if only the Morning Lord does not hear it.”
Rae: Rae smiles in return.
“Not improper at all. When I pray for the people of Thundertree I will also pray for your mother. May the light reach her.”
Rae holds a vial of holy water toward the sun so the light passes through it, refracting "rainbows" onto the undead-haunted streets.
"O Lathander, Author of Beginnings, look down upon this broken fold. As the sun pierces the veil of the world, let it pierce the veil of this corruption. Where nature has turned to rot, bring the fire; Where the soul is bound to bone, bring the blade of light.
"By the First Beam, I command the shadows to depart. By the Second Beam I command the dead to find their peace. By the Third Beam I seal this ground against the hunger of the night.
"And look Thou, O Lord of Renewal, upon Amafrey Silverton, She who ruled in life, let her find a higher throne in Thy kingdom. Purge from her the soot of the eruption; Wash her soul in the light that knows no ash or shadow. As she perished in the heat of the earth, let her rise in the heat of the Sun.
"The morning is come. Let the ash of the unholy be the soil for the new world. Out of the Shadow, into the Light."
Vala: Vala sharply wipes a tear from her eye and blinks hard several times.
“Thank you,” she says, voice carefully even. “I have tried not to think of my Maman, of the fate of all at Castle Never. But especially of what she is now. There is nothing to be done, no one will go near it.”
“But after today, after fighting them here… it is harder not to think of her being denied rest. Being caged again in some new horror.”
She looks back to Rae, gratitude plain.
“So, thank you. For giving her even the chance of a moment in the light. And for freeing my people here today. I will not forget it.”