wrecking_yard | Morning Meditation

We're not far from Tuskdale, having just cleared out undead who'd been getting too close for comfort; the small camp is quiet in dim pre-dawn light as I step over the tripwires for Jubilost's alarms and traps. There's a ridge near the camp with a good view of the area, facing eastwards across the river lands.

It's peaceful, warm; there's power returning, spent strength recovered...

But still silence, and the warm echo of divine power is a pale shadow of what I remember.

I stay there, waiting for some sign or guidance, but it's still blocked; I'm probably lucky to still be able to use magic.

After an hour or so, I realize I'm not the only one who left camp - Harrim is just downhill of me, in the middle of the aftermath of the fight, sitting next to the pieces of a zombie. It looks like he's been there for a while.

I pick my way down the ridge to where he's sitting, watching ants and scavenging insects swarm the corpse.

"What are you doing?" He does his prayers and meditation at sunset; I'm usually awake well before him.

"Observing a sacrament."

I look between him and the insects, then sit down on the other side of the largest piece of corpse. "The ants?"

He gives a grave nod. "The poor creature was torn away from its natural end; now they come to take it apart until nothing remains but bones to fade into the Earth. They are removing what has lingered, broken, past its time."

He's been less unnerving since his revelation about "what comes after the ashes", and shifting his focus to entropy as making way for new growth. The rotten flesh reeks less than it did yesterday, although that's going to change as the day warms.

The ants and flies have already made inroads on part of it, joined by some beetles and larvae - it's a gruesome spectacle, even with Harrim's reverent perspective that I'm trying to keep in mind.

"I've heard that in some areas, doctors will turn certain kinds of maggots loose on a severe infection... they eat the dead flesh, but have no taste for what's still healthy, so they prevent it from spreading."

He nods with a faint smile. "That is exactly the principle. Too many fear the scavengers, and forget what they do for us."

Removing the rot.

"It's funny how much everything intertwines despite best efforts to define neat categories - in its proper place, decay is a form of cleansing."

Harrim hums quietly with a pleased nod.

Unpleasant as they are, the infesting insects are life themselves; new growth from death, removing the corpse and any diseases it harbors. In a few weeks, it will be hard to tell anything happened on this hillside.

It's a strangely peaceful morning, even with the smell of rotting flesh. At the least, Harrim's lack of judgment - respect and reverence, even - towards creatures that most revile is admirable.

The meditation is eventually interrupted by Jubilost climbing down the hill, stopping behind Harrim, then staring between both of us and the decaying corpse for a good minute in increasing consternation. "What in the deepest Hells are you two doing?"

I motion to Harrim and the corpse. "I was just joining Harrim's meditations."

"On a rotting piece of twice-dead zombie." Jubilost adjusts his glasses, the statement flat and tinged with disbelief.

"On the decay removing this poor creature's flesh, prolonged beyond its time, and the scavengers performing their sacred duty of returning it to oblivion." Harrim holds up a gloved hand, letting a couple of iridescent carrion flies land on it. "Such humble creatures, so often ignored, yet how we all depend on them for tasks such as this!"

Jubilost frowns, and almost says something a couple of times, before slowly half-nodding. "That's... surprisingly profound, actually." He looks between Harrim and the corpse again, taking a quiet pause before he shakes his head and claps his hands together. "Right. Well, as fascinating as I'm sure this is, we really should be getting back to the capital - and away from this before something larger shows up."

I stand, brushing grass and ants from my robes; there's grass stains now added to bits of gore, and even with magic and Octavia's help it's going to take a while to get the white fabric clean. Harrim follows suit after a moment with a sigh, and we head back up the hill to help Jubilost break camp.