FSE

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Disclaimer: Characters are mine, comments are welcome, and I'm not good at writing disclaimers :)

"Mom, Father Andrews at church doesn't know everything...does he?" Vaelianne asked from her mothers lap, resting her head peacefully to help weave some thin cord about some pine twigs. "I mean, I understand what he describes and look around the room when we speaks. Everyone takes what he says at that and have no doubts. But, it seems somehow hollow to me."

Lady Catelyn Shaller purred soft and quiet to her young daughter, one hand petting through the tigress's hair while the other patiently corrected and adjusted cord weaves in concert with her daughters crafting. "I'm glad to hear your curiosity hasn't diminished, I was afraid it might when I agreed to let you go." Mother smiled inwardly, her young daughters hair had already begun to silver as her own had when she was but a kitten. "No one can know everything, that is one thing that many others strive to solve. To try and learn as much as they can and pass it on to the next generation of curious explorers. Did he say something that bothers you?"

Vaelianne's paws slowed to a stop and her ears perked forward with intense concentration, concentration focused inwardly as she tried to work out her thoughts before speaking them. "He spoke on the nature of life and death. Of an eternal soul that ascends to an infinite realm of blessings after death. That death is nothing to fear for ourselves and others because of the rest and peace that awaits them after."

"That is a very common belief, what is wrong with an eternal reward for a tired spirit after the body passes?" Catelyn teased. She shifted to help settle the weight of her peacefully relaxed daughter and to hide her nervous anticipation. She remembered this conversation vividly, one that she was part of as a little kitten herself. A conversation that has to naturally flow to its own conclusion.

"No no, nothing like that mom. It's just that, if the next world is so much better why do we even bother living in this one?" She mused, continuing to mull over her thoughts. "If all souls ascend, what brings them here to begin with? I guess I'm thinking too much about it aren't I?"

"I asked my mother the same thing when I was just a bit older than you are now. We were in the market, and I stopped to listen to a young man praise the death of someone he knew that died fighting. His words comforted everyone around except for me, It seemed a bit off to me. And that night, as we do now, my mother and I sat down to spend an evening weaving crafts."

"Was grandma a priest or something? Did she know what really happens?" Vaelianne asked, her fingers going right back to weaving a circular shape from the twigs and cord.

"It's a matter of opinion I suppose. If you knew nothing but the factual world, you'd claim anyone who spoke of spiritual matters to be 'touched' wouldn't you. And if you knew only of the church, opinions otherwise would be heretical. She was a very spiritual person, that is certain. Would you like to hear what she told me?"

Vaelianne's ears perked forward once more in attention, her fingers still as her craft was forgotten at the chance to hear a story.

"You and I have souls, and those souls do not linger after death. The church says the same thing, as I said, a very common belief. It's the before and after that is different. Who is right? The world isn't a cut and dry as that. The view that priests have is looking at the world from the eyes of a person, but what if we look at it from the outside?"

"There's a difference? I suppose there could be, kind of like hearing a story instead of being in it right?

"Exactly," Catelyn purred, recalling her own first lesson in her mothers den so many years ago. "Have you ever been someplace that made your fur stand on end for seemingly no reason? Be it a good or bad feeling, something just sets your senses off. It's usually a very spiritual place. Spirits, souls, temples, graveyards, they all have much in common. It's an energy, a life. All around us, right now, is this energy. Sometimes that energy collects and gathers. Around graves, sites of great wars, places of great sacrifice and strife. But also places old and rich with life, like the deep deep woods that no one has disturbed."

"The midwife's home, whenever we pass by it feels like the calm of the world has settled about my shoulders. It passes just as quickly, but I swear that every time we visit her I feel better than when we arrived." Vaelianne commented, her fingers having forgotten her circular charm now just moved about the air before her eyes as if to touch the topic at hand.

"That's right, so many lives have been brought to this world that some of that spiritual energy has stayed behind. What do you suppose happens when enough of that energy collects? If a place has so much life, death, miracles, and struggles that spiritual energy funnels into that area?"

Vaelianne again focused inwardly, her thoughts running down alleys and corridors of possibilities that she had not yet considered. "I don't know, I suppose it just continues on?"

"It does, in a sense. If a place or thing becomes heavy with all of that spirit, you could call it sacred or perhaps desecrated depending on how you look at it. But it can keep going and eventually, all of that spiritual energy collects into something new and wonderful. A soul. Anything can have a soul."

Vaelianne laughed out into the air in a fit of giggles and hisses, "Really, anything can? I understand how places feel special, But a soul is stretching it."

Lady Catelyn giggled quietly herself and lifted her hand from her daughters hair to gesture across the room. "Bring me the gray stone from our mantle, the hearth stone."

The hearth stone was a fist sized smooth stone that Vaelianne had known since she was born, seemingly a boring rock that Catelyn always had visible at the center of the house. It always stood out against the more organic woods and fabrics of the home, but had always been there in the background.

Vaelianne picked up the stone and casually sat next to her mother with the nondescript rock between her hands.

"Many generations ago, my mother's mother's mother and so on found this stone in the middle of a field. She, like myself and soon you, had the same silver hair that runs through our family. And this stone drew her attention the same way the midwives home catches yours. She brought it home and set it upon a shelf, and there it stayed for her entire life. Just a stone on the shelf, doing nothing but be there while she helped the sick that came in need. It sat there as she raised her children and grandchildren. And it was there when she passed away. Her daughter kept it after that, and hers after that, through out the years. It has seen hundreds of lives saved, children born, and lives end peacefully. How does it feel to you?"

Vaelianne looked back down to this gray rock in her hands, shifting its weight back and forth. "Heavy, like a rock. But safe. I don't know, I suppose I'm just used to it always being around?"

"And that's what it wants. That stone has a soul and is just as alive as you and I. It doesn't have a mind to speak or think, but it does have a will. And its will has been and will always be to protect this family. We have helped so many over the years that the nature of helping and the spirit of life has settled into this stone. It has been looking after you since before you were born, as it has me."

The stone trembled in her hands, not of its own but as Vaelianne quivered nervously. She held what was a rock that was a boring decoration her whole life, now revealed to be alive. She looked carefully up into her mothers eyes, scared.

"If I dropped it?"

"If the stone would break, that soul would pass on the same as if it were a person and died. And that soul would spread out into the spirit of the land, sharing with it all the love and life it experienced as a soul. That sharing grows with each spirit, making the world richer with every generation."

Vaelianne tenderly sat the stone before her, resting her hand upon it as though to comfort and pet an animal. There was a contentment there, her own or from the stone it was impossible to tell. "Why doesn't the church explain it like that? It seems to make so much more sense and the people have a right to know the truth."

"The church does tell the truth, in a sense. They tell it as each of us might experience it for ourselves. People are selfish, and a view of life after death that isn't their own doesn't grant any comfort. Do not fault them for it, it is just how most people see the world about them, as it relates to themselves."

"Do I still get to go to church now?" Vaelianne asked timidly, looking up to her mother.

"If you want to, but, I think you're old enough to start learning what my mother taught me."

"What's that?"

"Everything else that most people never see. You're a witch after all."