"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from"
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Ymiden, 715:
In which Faith, having been purchased by Jamal, is brought to Andaris for the first time and begins to understand what her role will be here.[/center]
The journey here had passed in mostly darkness. Jamal, her new owner, had kept the carriage curtains pulled closed so that she did not see the world. She sat on the floor of the carriage, her new owner sitting on the bench and she kept quiet. He spoke to her now and then, instructing her in the rules of their relationship, the restrictions under which she must work and what he would expect of her. She listened, carefully noting what he said, knowing that it was important that she did not make him repeat himself. "I will continue your training. Famula teaches us to serve in life that we enter Her realm in peace. I will push you to every extreme that you have and beyond. I will hurt you and scar you and I do it in service to Her. You will not feel it, you will not believe it, but what I will do will be in service to you. Remember that in the trials to come" She looked up at him and for all her arcs of training, Faith's face showed surprise. He smiled at her; little did she know that it was the only time that he would smile for at least the next arc. "Believe it, little dove" he said and she lowered her head in thought.
What he said made sense, it was true. Her teachers in the Slave School had taught her many valuable lessons and they had done so at the expense of their own time. Jamal would train her, attempt to break her and in the attempting would make her stronger. He would ensure that, when Famula finally saw fit to take Faith into Her lantern, Faith would have served to the best of her abilities, to the utmost that she could. "You have questions. Ask them" he said and Faith looked at him, her silver eyes searching his face. "Why would you do this?" Jamal watched her face for a moment, and then he spoke "We are all strengthened in the service of Famula, Dove"[/i].
When they arrived, Faith saw an undertaker's shop. It was well appointed, clean and obviously meant to cater for the wealthier families of the deceased. Jamal stepped down from the carriage and she got busy bringing in his cases and boxes. There were lots of them and they were heavy, but she moved as quickly as she could. Then, she too the horses out the back and tended to them as well as she could, although her knowledge of such was very limited. Thankfully, he had a stable boy on hand and Faith simply worked to clean out the hay and carry the water. She was tired in her bones but she had no time for such, so she kept busy and she pushed past the tiredness.
When she had packed away all of his things, Jamal called her into the morgue area; the room currently had two bodies in there. "When I allow you to sleep, which is a privilege not a right, you sleep here" he said, pointing to the corner of the room where there was a space. There was no cot or blanket, but Faith did not ask and he did not offer. "You do not sleep tonight, Dove. Tonight you learn the beginning. There is a book there, with the basics of how to lay out a corpse. In the morning, both of these corpses will be clean, dressed, laid out and in their lined caskets or I will punish you. Now, cook my meal, prepare my bed and then, when you hear me snoring and not before, you may start." She nodded her head and dropped a curtesy to him "Yes, master" she said.
It appeared that it was time to get acquainted with Jamal's kitchen and his taste in food.