The Wise One
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Laid in the crook of his own arm, the Metal Worker with his large and calloused hands, wiped away the thin membranous film from the baby's face and mouth, clearing his tiny airway before giving Mykel a little pinch to the thigh. Stunned by the sensation, the babe drew in a gasp of breath and let out a healthy cry. And in the process turned his palor into a bright and healthy pink hue, as well as eliciting a chuckle from the mouth of Vedric.
Still settled within the well of his lap, Athamé further added to the child's ruddying constitution by closing her bruised lips over Mykel's tiny hip and giving him quite the bite, inducting him into this peculiar rite of passage. It made the wound on Vedric's own hip vicariously flare with new pain. Yet she was neither denied nor scolded for visiting such a cruel barbarism upon her newborn. He had instead become her accomplice as she lifted her mouth to share this sanguine kiss anew with him. Now Mykel too, would become part of this blood pact binding.
No longer did he mourn her for her own family's absense in this joyous event. For this was meant to be. Vedric had become her surrogate, her touchstone for all the things she deserved to share, and be shared with. He had sojourned a century and a half to arrive... here... at this very crux. And it was much much larger than he could even imagine. For he was but a blind pawn in the grander scheme of things, far beyond a simple man's grasp. As she pulled from the shared communion of blood and tongue, it was but a moment that lapsed before he drew his arms round her and the babe a little tighter... and ripped away a few unraveled threads from Mykel's swaddling cloths. These were twined together and tied tightly near the base of his cord, yet another bit process in his whole separation from his mother's body.
Later. Much later. When the Seer had recouped a bit of her strength, Vedric led her down the stairwell and into the bath. Still snuggly bundled in his swaddling wraps, Mykel was laid to the stone floor while the two basked in the warmth of the water and washed away stain of love and birth and all the inbetween. Whispers passed between them. And more whispers still that lingered for perhaps more than an ahn.
"I never felt alone. You shared Mykel with me and I liked it."
"I liked it too, my seraph. I did not desire for you to bear... my son... alone with some midwife or Physician. I wanted to feel you laboring. I wanted to look into your eyes and kiss away your pain and tears." The actual event had been much more traumatic, yet he'd still been an intregal part of it from start to finish. At the edge of the pool, where he had laid the child still bound in his towel to the floor, Vedric clutched the blackened ceremonial dagger's handle. The top towel still wrapped around the child's placenta was lifted and set beside the baby, and as he slowly unwrapped the folds that swaddled him, Vedric looked him over for a moment from head to toe before lifting his gaze to the woman again.
Rising out of the water, he too had settled there to the stone floor for a moment, right beside where the baby lay with his tiny slate colored eyes blinking. Surely it was a major adjustment having been cocooned his entire life prior to today inside the dark warm enclosure of his mother's belly.
Vedric reached over the child to her, "Give me your hand, Athamé. I've another thing to share with you."
The blade's handle was placed into her hand, where his own curled right over it, much the same as he'd done on the night she came to his forge to have it sharpened. His left hand too, was opened palm to her, as if expectantly awaiting that one to be filled likewise.
"I have made this a new custom. Our custom."
Curling the fingers then of his left hand round her opposite mate as well, he guided her to gently handle that small portion of Mykel's cord, just fraction's of a hort beyond where twined linen threads had been tightly tied. Together they leaned over this small boy, and together... severed his cord. At last freeing the boy from the last vestiges of life in utero. He was now essentially on his own. And where he leaned with his temple pressed against her own, Vedric had whispered a thing at the precise moment the cut was made.
"I love you forever, nai'elí." Grey eyes drifted from her face and down over the wee boy laying below them. "And you, wa'chinsapa."
"This is his name that none other lips will ever speak, save yours and mine. It means... Wise One." Still he whispered to her, as he uncurled his hand from hers and moved away the bundle of afterbirth, still wrapped in its own separate towel. It was not uncommon for a man to have bestowed upon him, two names. One for use... and one meant only for the most private and cherished of inner circles of family and friends. Righting himself, he set his grey gaze upon her, and reached over the child once mire... this time to brush back a few strands of her hair from her face and brow.
"He is very wise, my seraph. I can feel it." Slowly he rose to his feet, still holding her one dagger-bearing hand and with a slight urge, helped her rise also to her own out of the bathing pool.
Still settled within the well of his lap, Athamé further added to the child's ruddying constitution by closing her bruised lips over Mykel's tiny hip and giving him quite the bite, inducting him into this peculiar rite of passage. It made the wound on Vedric's own hip vicariously flare with new pain. Yet she was neither denied nor scolded for visiting such a cruel barbarism upon her newborn. He had instead become her accomplice as she lifted her mouth to share this sanguine kiss anew with him. Now Mykel too, would become part of this blood pact binding.
No longer did he mourn her for her own family's absense in this joyous event. For this was meant to be. Vedric had become her surrogate, her touchstone for all the things she deserved to share, and be shared with. He had sojourned a century and a half to arrive... here... at this very crux. And it was much much larger than he could even imagine. For he was but a blind pawn in the grander scheme of things, far beyond a simple man's grasp. As she pulled from the shared communion of blood and tongue, it was but a moment that lapsed before he drew his arms round her and the babe a little tighter... and ripped away a few unraveled threads from Mykel's swaddling cloths. These were twined together and tied tightly near the base of his cord, yet another bit process in his whole separation from his mother's body.
Later. Much later. When the Seer had recouped a bit of her strength, Vedric led her down the stairwell and into the bath. Still snuggly bundled in his swaddling wraps, Mykel was laid to the stone floor while the two basked in the warmth of the water and washed away stain of love and birth and all the inbetween. Whispers passed between them. And more whispers still that lingered for perhaps more than an ahn.
"I never felt alone. You shared Mykel with me and I liked it."
"I liked it too, my seraph. I did not desire for you to bear... my son... alone with some midwife or Physician. I wanted to feel you laboring. I wanted to look into your eyes and kiss away your pain and tears." The actual event had been much more traumatic, yet he'd still been an intregal part of it from start to finish. At the edge of the pool, where he had laid the child still bound in his towel to the floor, Vedric clutched the blackened ceremonial dagger's handle. The top towel still wrapped around the child's placenta was lifted and set beside the baby, and as he slowly unwrapped the folds that swaddled him, Vedric looked him over for a moment from head to toe before lifting his gaze to the woman again.
Rising out of the water, he too had settled there to the stone floor for a moment, right beside where the baby lay with his tiny slate colored eyes blinking. Surely it was a major adjustment having been cocooned his entire life prior to today inside the dark warm enclosure of his mother's belly.
Vedric reached over the child to her, "Give me your hand, Athamé. I've another thing to share with you."
The blade's handle was placed into her hand, where his own curled right over it, much the same as he'd done on the night she came to his forge to have it sharpened. His left hand too, was opened palm to her, as if expectantly awaiting that one to be filled likewise.
"I have made this a new custom. Our custom."
Curling the fingers then of his left hand round her opposite mate as well, he guided her to gently handle that small portion of Mykel's cord, just fraction's of a hort beyond where twined linen threads had been tightly tied. Together they leaned over this small boy, and together... severed his cord. At last freeing the boy from the last vestiges of life in utero. He was now essentially on his own. And where he leaned with his temple pressed against her own, Vedric had whispered a thing at the precise moment the cut was made.
"I love you forever, nai'elí." Grey eyes drifted from her face and down over the wee boy laying below them. "And you, wa'chinsapa."
"This is his name that none other lips will ever speak, save yours and mine. It means... Wise One." Still he whispered to her, as he uncurled his hand from hers and moved away the bundle of afterbirth, still wrapped in its own separate towel. It was not uncommon for a man to have bestowed upon him, two names. One for use... and one meant only for the most private and cherished of inner circles of family and friends. Righting himself, he set his grey gaze upon her, and reached over the child once mire... this time to brush back a few strands of her hair from her face and brow.
"He is very wise, my seraph. I can feel it." Slowly he rose to his feet, still holding her one dagger-bearing hand and with a slight urge, helped her rise also to her own out of the bathing pool.
