Into Darkness

63

At first, a few of the enemy Glee slowly, timidly, began approaching the Glee still kneeling around their fallen friend. When the first reached Iben’s body, the Glee who had been kneeling stood and moved back so that the others could see what their beliefs had wrought. Many of Sang’s Glee bared their teeth as they hissed. Richard thought that their meaning was clear enough.

The first Glee to slowly shuffle up to Iben went to a knee beside the body. Richard and Vika shared a look, wondering what it could mean, and what was going to come next, but with that look they wordlessly decided to let it play out and see what happened. Richard still had his bloody sword in his hand, so if things suddenly turned violent, he intended to show them what violence really was.

The twin storms of rage were still roaring through him. His blade had come out in anger and tasted blood. It wanted more. This time, if a battle broke out, they were already in their home world and would not be able to vanish to escape certain death.

The Glee that approached first and went to a knee gently pulled off a strip of the float weed from Iben’s body. As Richard and Vika watched along with all the silent Glee, he ate the piece of water weed.

To Richard, it looked almost like some kind of sacred ceremony or statement that this one Glee, at least, wished to give up the path he had been on and return to their traditional ways.

As that Glee stood and moved aside, another came forward and took his place. He, too, pulled off a short piece of water weed and ate it while the Glee with Richard stood back beyond Iben’s body, out of the way, and watched.

Soon, all of the Glee were lining up to come and kneel before the dead body of one of their kind. Each in turn took a piece of float weed and ate it in a kind of reverent expression of their sorrow. Richard took it as a wish to return to their ways.

Before long, the flutter and float weed, and the scrum under it, had all been eaten, except for the layers around Iben’s neck that were covered with blood. There were still a vast number of followers of the goddess who hadn’t had a chance to eat some of the water weeds that had protected Iben, so instead, they began mingling in among the Glee who had been with Richard, looking like they wanted to take pieces of the water weeds off of them as a suitable substitute. The Glee covered in water weeds all held their arms out so that their former enemies could all partake of the water weed in a symbolic gesture.

If any of them were speaking, they were not doing so in a way that allowed Richard and Vika to hear anything they were saying. He supposed they didn’t want outsiders to hear their apologies and pleas for forgiveness.

It took quite a while for all the Glee to come up and take a piece of the water weed. As they gathered around, waiting their turn, some of the Glee wrapped in the weeds began pulling off strips and handing them to the ones waiting their turn in order to speed up the process.

Richard didn’t see a single Glee leave, or express defiance. They all looked genuinely remorseful at the death of one of their own kind.

He finally sheathed his sword. He was thankful that it had done enough.

He also didn’t see a single Glee pay any attention to the body of the Golden Goddess lying in a heap by itself. None of the Glee mourned her death. There were so many of the Glee, it took over an hour before all of them were able to collect and consume a symbolic piece of the water plants that had long been part of their staple diet and way of life.

“I have never seen anything like this,” Vika whispered as she watched the silent ritual. “I’m sorry that Iben had to die, but I am thankful to be able to see others make the kind of decision I once made.”

Richard put an appreciative hand on Vika’s shoulder. Having been prepared for a bloody fight to the death, and now seeing that fate turning aside, he feared to test his voice.

The piglets had all run off and the sow had gone after them, so the scene was hushed as each of the Glee ate some of the water plants after they paid their respects to the dead Iben and finally greeted their long-separated brethren.

Richard, too, was sad at the death of Iben. He had been open, friendly, and eager to help, and along with Sang had completely turned Richard’s view of the Glee upside down. They were not all what he expected. They were far more than that.

Iben had wanted to talk his fellow Glee out of violence against their own kind. He had wanted to try to get them to stop and think about what they had been about to do. He thought he could persuade them.

In the end, he had.