Moving toward the end of the year

The end of the year is coming quickly. I'm not sure that I'm prepared for it, though I am making good progress on my last big fiction project. Such Gifts As These is in the final 'fix it' phase and willl go off in submission soon.

Here is a small piece from a section I haven't yet gone over one last time:

He didn't even mind the walk in the rain, since it kept many people inside. They reached the Temple well ahead of the official party from the palace, and stepped into the dark and cool interior. Though much larger, the building still reminded him of the Lishel Temple in Valentia. It was, finally, a little piece of familiarity in a world that had become increasingly confusing. He had taken an hour to go to the temple at Valentia before he left on the journey north, and standing here now seemed as though he had finally reached a destination. He had not set out from Valentia to reach this temple, but it was, at least, a place he understood.

Blue robbed acolytes came along the long aisle to greet them, their hands folded as though in perpetual prayer.

"Welcome, visitors, to this place of peace," one said, bowing his head.

"I am a true believer," Phaedrus said, and startled Adrian with those words. "I am a member of the Mother Temple in Valentia, and have been blessed by Pater Fabron."

"Ah. Then you must be Phaedrus, who will give the eulogy? Welcome. Brother Bralin was pleased to know that a member of the temple would do that duty. And you?"

"I am a true believer, but my temple affiliation is that of Helensha," Adrian said.

"Welcome to the peace of Lishel," the acolyte said. "Brother Guther will lead you to the Helensha sector. Please come with me, Phaedrus."

"Take care," Adrian said, a hand resting on his shoulder for a moment. "I'll walk with you on the way back."

"Good. Thank you."

Adrian went with Guther to the right side and along the aisle to the place beneath the statue of his own Goddess at the front of the temple. He hated feeling uneasy about the eulogy, and he refused to feel nervous knowing that others watched him now. He'd spent his entire life watched by someone as people tried to figure out just what he would become. That had done more to prepare him for audiences than any training at the Acadamy.

The Queen's party finally arrived. The side areas of the temple had been slowly filling with people whose affiliations were to the other Gods. There were a few in the Lishal seats as well, but it was not a popular religion here, even when the Queen sat in those seats. Or maybe it was because she did. He had never understood politics.

He even saw Vetrian in the Koltanten section, talking urgently with another man while members of the Queen's Guard and regular troops hovered nearby. Phaedrus suspected the other man must be General Decius. The conversation reminded him of what they'd heard about the A'Lanvari. There was a story left unfinished and maybe a good diversion. He hadn't even noticed when the Queen arrived until the Temple went silent and the others began to stand.

The blessings came, and then a prayer for the dead. He let himself fall into the familiar rhythm of the service. This wasn't, after all, even the first time he'd given a eulogy, or the first friend he had lost.

His hand almost went to the bruise on the side of his face, but he drew back. Tana had been his friend. That's what he needed to remember now.

When his time came to stand before the others, it proved to be easy. He could give these people a remembrance of Tanaquilis that they'd never known.

"When I was young, Tana often took me for walks along the beach near my mother's home. I remember one day he knelt in the sand and scooped up a handful. This is all the people in the world, Phae, he told me. Do you want to know how to be more than just another piece of sand in the crowd?

"He let the sand slip away, but on his palm rested a perfect shell. You do so by making yourself something more than just another grain of sand. It's harder work, but if you stand strong, you will not be swept through the sea of life, lost in every storm.

"And see here, he said, holding the shell up. See how the pieces of sand cling to the shell, so that it protects them? That is what all men should strive to be, a shelter for others in the time of distress and storms..."