Clarice Malison

“Mother, can you and I go talk to Anthracyda?”

My mother replied, without taking her eyes off the repair she was making in Oswyn’s pants “Not today. Why? Are you still upset over the argument with Mistress Potter over animal souls last week?”

“Yes. Do you think Anthracyda knows about souls?”

“I think it will give you an honest answer about whether it knows. Is it worth the six hours of walking if Anthracyda says it doesn’t know?”

“Jenefer Blexham says that her mother, Mrs Rede and Mistress Potter saw Anthracyda show colors around Mr and Mrs Valcar. She said they called them ‘auras’. Is that like seeing your soul?”

This time my mother looked up. “I don’t know. I know they told all the women in the village that if two people are courting and they go to see Anthracyda, it can make your auras visible. If their auras, then they can sparkle if the two people are right for each other or turn really ugly bruised colours if they are not right for each other. I don’t know if auras are the colours of your soul or not.”

“Well it can at least talk to us about something that it can make visible.”

My mother sighed. “Alright, we can go next week.”

Clarice Malison

My second walk to the Stones seemed to go both faster and slower. Faster because I was excited rather than worried and slower because I could look at everything instead of just following the person in front of me. Finally we got to the meadow and I ran over to the Stones.

I could feel its attention as I drew near and slowed down.

I had to remind myself to be polite. “Hello Anthracyda.”

"Hello Clarice, Elspet"

Since I “heard” it say hello to both me and my mother, “Do I need to talk aloud so my mother can hear my part of the conversation?”

"No, I can include you both in the same conversation. You can talk or just think what you want."

“Anthracyda, do you know what souls are?”

“I know what some humans say they are. They seem to believe that souls are immortal, which implies that they can be separated from a body and is everything that makes you different from someone else other than your body differences. So what makes you ‘YOU’ and different from your mother or Fiona or Sussana.”

“Can you see our souls like you see our thoughts?”

“No. If you or me or animals, plants or trees have souls, I cannot sense them. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, it just means that if they do exist, I don’t see them.”

“But you see and show our auras. Is that not like our souls?”

“Good question. Certainly your aura is not your thoughts.”

Anthracyda continued: “Think of a fire. Your aura is like the heat and the light coming from the fire, but the heat and the light are not the fire. Your aura comes from you, but plants and other animals have auras as well. So if souls are real and your aura comes from your soul, then plants and animals have souls as well.”

It added “When a plant or animal dies, their aura seems to die with them. If souls exist and are immortal, maybe they don’t die, they just go somewhere else.”

I asked “How do you make them sparkle or turn ugly when you show them meeting each other?”

“I don’t make them sparkle or turn ugly. Think about when you mix two wool dyes together. You get a different colour dye. Just like you can reflect light from a piece of glass or water or some shiny metal, I can reflect auras towards each other in a way you can see them. What you call sparkles or bruised colours is just what happens when different auras mingle and get mixed.”

My mother decided to ask “Do auras change over a lifetime?”

Anthracyda chuckled “Well yours is not quite the same as it was when you just before you got married. You have more cares and worries and that can be seen in your aura.”

“Mother!” I exclaimed. “How come you never told me you met Anthracyda before the village walk?”

“I didn’t want to get in trouble with the Vicar if you accidentally said something to anyone.”

“What? I would never …” I paused, then shrugged my shoulders. “I guess it was safer that way.”

Mother refocused on Anthracyda. “If people change for the better, does that change their auras as well? So what was not a good match in one year could be a good match in a later year?”

Anthracyda seemed thoughtful “It is possible, but it would really have to be a big change in the person, almost to the point where they are not the same person as in the first year. Every entity has certain characteristics when they are born and other characteristics that develop as they live. Sometimes those can change but I don’t see humans enough to know what will change and the best way to change them. I’m better at knowing the plants and animals that live around here.”

“So we have to figure that out for ourselves.” Mother mused.

“Some entities get pleasure from hurting others. Some entities get pain from seeing others hurt. Some entities just think about themselves and do not pay attention to others at all, for good or bad. Sometimes they are born that way, sometimes they learn that from others.”

I jumped back in. “Sheepdogs are born to herd sheep, but you need to train them to herd the sheep where you want the sheep.”

“And how do you train them?”

“Duncane says you need to start them as puppies, and each one is a little different. They need to learn to trust you even when they see or smell new things so you can be partners. Oh, and you need patience. And you need to train them to correct the sheep, not hurt them.”

“Duncane is wise. Elspet, do you see a connection between a shepherd and their dog as a partnership and a pair of handfasted humans?”

My mother thought for a moment. “Some people will want to be the shepherd all the time. But, yes, so long as the two are willing to be both shepherd and sheepdog, you need patience and trust and knowing not to hurt each other to be a partnership.” She sighed. “It takes time, even with the best intentions.” She looked away, troubled “And I’ve seen couples that seemed to have the worst intentions.”

She looked back at me “Your father and I will do our best to make sure that never happens to you or Oswyn.”

I just know that at some point I’m going to ask my sister Hannah if she is the shepherd or the sheepdog with Duncane.

My mother looked at the Standing Stones. “You told Hannah and Duncane to be an example to others in your village about respect and kindness and support. If you want us to raise the village like children, so everyone has patience and trust, it is going to take longer than I live.”

“I know. But it could be a start.”

My mother added “Cait Rede said her parents talked about kindness instead of goodness. Did they get that from you?”

“Yes. Many people want to believe in gods that share their values. If one of their values is ”my tribe good, all others bad“, then they justify killing or hurting others because their god wants that and has stated that hurting others is ”good“. Your vicar wanted power and control and did not care who got hurt so long as he achieved that goal. It is a little more difficult to justify hurting others if their god wants them to be kind.”

"I’m not your god, but I do think that kindness makes for a better world. I think you do as well, so I am suggesting it even though I have nothing to gain from it. I’ve been trying to explain the benefits of living together to plants for several million years. They are slow learners too, but I have patience and hope."

My mother reached out and touched the nearest of the Stones, brushing its rough surface with her fingers and then looked at me and offered a sad smile.

She said “Anthracyda, I think you do have something to gain. At the beginning of the month an old woman came to the village, driven from her home by accusations of witchcraft. She was sick and died with only her husband and Sussana to comfort her. Yesterday, Clarice saw a baby bird fall from its nest and get killed by a cat. There was nothing to comfort it.”

She continued “You have lived millions of years and seen so much pain and conflict in humans and animals and plants. You could harden your heart and ignore it, but you don’t. While nothing can hurt you physically or kill you, you care and seeing others’ pain causes you pain.”

She finished “I think you hope that if you teach things to be kinder, there might be just a little less pain in the world.”

I slowly realised what my mother was saying. “We are all children to you. All the life you see in the hills.”

There was an immense feeling of sadness in my mind.

“There is a lot of pain everywhere. Plants and animals need to eat. What they need to eat is each other. That is unavoidable. I can’t change that. But I would like to reduce the suffering, the avoidable pain.”

“Well, Fiona, Sussana and I have agreed to more hugs and fewer beatings! For everyone, not just children.”

“That is a good start. You won’t change the world overnight, so have patience, but I am proud of you.”

“That’s what I told them! If we start with our children, maybe their children’s children will have taught the village. ”

Epilogue: Philip Rede Returns (August 12-18, 1960)

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