“Raven. Hello.” The speaker clambered over the pile of bones to join me just below the summit. Another Boneburner, he is wearing his shroud as a wrap about his waist. His chest is exposed, and covered in deliberate ashen markings. His mask is cocked on his head like an askew beret. We are in the Boneyard. No formality is required.
“Raven. Hello.” My shroud is in tatters, exposing one breast. I care not for my modesty. The ravens had torn it in their… play… with me earlier. I bore fresh gouges on my shoulders from them. Gouges that were packed with bone ash after. The wounds will scar as was their intention. But I do not understand why.
I had seen him only once before, but I feel I have known him my entire life. I appear in my late 20s, he appears slightly younger. He does not look at me, but joins me in staring at the Bone Temple in the near distance.
“Does it anger you too, that it stands? That it even exists?” He speaks quietly, in the measured tones of one trying to withhold emotion.
“Yes. But I feel its time is growing to a close. There are fewer of them still living.”
“There are fewer of us overall.”
“They can only take from our number.”
“Have you seen any?”
“No. If any have come or gone, it was not from this side of the temple. I’ve seen a shadow just within the door. I think it was the same ‘priestess’ that tempted me. There was animosity in her glare.”
“Animosity? That place is unclean in every sense of the word.” He clenched his fist. “I don’t understand my anger though. Why just looking at that place fills me with such heat.”
I lift my mask and look at him. I lean in and smell for too hot flesh. “You have all your body parts.” My matter-of-fact tone caught his attention. “You have not been inside.”
“Yes, I do. And no, I haven’t.”
I lower my mask to hide my emotions. “Ah. It is good you have your instincts then.”
He looked at me, at the marks on my shoulders, at my harsh ridged hands, and says nothing for a long while. “You are losing your humanity. They have kept theirs. And yet I feel your fate is the better one.”
“I am not losing my humanity. I am gaining other… things. They have kept theirs. And yes, my fate is the better one. Do not allow your perception to muddy your understanding. The priests within the Unburning will always appear strong, beautiful, young, and human.”
A shadow of movement at the entrance to the Bone Temple. We watch in silence for a moment more. “What you have not said is more important than what you have. I will remember that, Raven.”
“What have I not said?” I queried him as he stood up to leave.
He looked at the Bone Temple, then turned his back to it as if it could hear him. “You have not said what price is paid for the priests to always appear strong, beautiful, young, and human. And that price may be the most inhuman of all.” He slid his mask over his face. “When my time comes, reduce me to ash. Do not allow any part of me to go to that… place.”
“If it be in my power, Raven, I shall.”
He left, scrambling over the top of the bones and disappearing down the other side. I remained sitting on the dry clattering heap, watching the Unburning Bone Temple. I was soon joined by dozens of ravens. We continued to watch. To wait. For the burning to one day begin.