following this
After they left the ship, Vega and Huw had parted ways.
"You'll make sure that the children are taken care of?"
"You know you don't have to do this alone, Eva?"
"I do, Huw. I do have to do this alone."
"You may be right. But Arlo isn't here so we won't know, will we?"
"It isn't fair that you know what I'm thinking you know."
"You're like an open book, Huw. Full of pictures."
Vega moved over to her father's tent. There, his body was laid out on a table. He was laying on heavy fabric which was folded and sewn to take long poles either side. Those would be slid into the holes in the fabric and that would be how they carried him.
But, before that, she had to prepare him. She had, in her hands, some fabric and a rope from her father's cabin aboard the Wanderlust.
"Hello, Papa,"
"I've got what we need. It's jus' me an' you now, so we can get you ready."
"This is the rope what wrapped around your hand an' mama's hand, on the day you got married."
"You hold on to that, Papa."
Next was the fabric she had brought from his memory chest.
"This is the fabric given to you at your birth,"
"It's so that those who've passed an' migh' not recognise you will know it's you who's there. The rope will lead you to Mama, Papa, an' this will lead your brother to you. "
Biqaj traditions tended towards broad concepts and then clans each had their own interpretations. In their clan, there was a simple tradition, and so Vega wrapped him in the warm blanket which he lay on and then she waited. Sitting next to him, Vega spoke and sang the whole time, making sure that it was never silent. That was a strange superstition among her people, not to be silent in the presence of death.
After a few moments, her cousins arrived. Huw carried the two long poles, Reese and Shon walked in behind their brother. Vega continued to sing as the boys inserted the poles and then they moved and stood, one at each corner.
The plan was that the four of them would go to the shoreline where they would transfer her father's body to the raft and set it out to the ocean. When it was a distance away, they would fire a flaming arrow to it. Vega was ready for that, she knew what had to happen and that was fine.
"One, two, three... lift."
Singing, she stepped out of the tent in unison step with Huw and the twins and there, Vega's voice shook and for a moment she stopped.
She'd been expecting it to be just them. Just them in a small, private ceremony but as she looked out with eyes which now swam with tears, there was everyone. Every member of Sweetsong was there and they lined the small distance between the tent and the shore. Every one of them held a candle, a light in the darkness. Vega looked up and there, in the sky, she saw a star which she'd never seen before.
"Look, Papa,"
"Look at that star. It's jus' for you that is."
The trail of lights led down to the shore. Vega breathed in and as they started to walk again, she lifted her voice once more in the song. Ahead of them was the shoreline and she saw the many, many lanterns, as traditional for this trial but which, today, would join her father on his final journey, lighting the way like stars in the darkness. She didn't know what to do, so she stepped forward, one foot in front of another and she looked around in the hope that someone might be stepping forward to direct things, because she was fairly sure that she couldn't.
