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Entry tags:
.memory registry
7th year, summer; hunting.
15th year, summer; bargaining and blackmail. [csa]
19th year, winter; the passing of the king, the king's guard, and the rightful heir.
19th year, spring; the first ambush. [animal death]
20th year, autumn; the betrothal to Nousha.
20th year, winter; the birth of Zahra. [depiction of childbirth]
24th year, winter; the second death of Soheil. [infant death]
15th year, summer; bargaining and blackmail. [csa]
19th year, winter; the passing of the king, the king's guard, and the rightful heir.
19th year, spring; the first ambush. [animal death]
20th year, autumn; the betrothal to Nousha.
20th year, winter; the birth of Zahra. [depiction of childbirth]
24th year, winter; the second death of Soheil. [infant death]
19th year, winter; the passing of the king, the king's guard, and the rightful heir.
Nobles, guards, servants, dogs and horses alike all file down the streets, bracketed on either side by the wailing people who watch as they pass. Everyone has swaddled themselves in as much white as they own to guard themselves against the chill, but the air is unsuitably dry - no rain, no snow.
At the head of the line are the three cypress-wood coffins, lined with white cloth and carried by four men each. They have no lids, so the people can see the bodies inside, carefully posed as if sleeping. There are only some places where their wounds are hidden under extra fabric, like the cloth wound around their necks to keep their heads from jostling too far away from their shoulders. The first two coffins - a man who strongly resembles Ardashir, and a woman who closely resembles him - are trimmed with a sash of purple; the third, carrying an older, more solidly built man, with a sash of yellow.
Directly following them is a shaded carriage drawn by two horses, carrying Ardashir and his mother as its passengers. Ardashir carries a package in his lap, wrapped in white cloth. A crown of chains and gems covers a good deal of his face, but what can be seen of his expression looks as solemn as Roshanak beside him. People shoot them hateful looks as they pass, but neither one of them ever looks away from the bodies ahead. They're both silent, almost impassive save for their tightly laced hands in the narrow space between them.
Eventually the procession reaches the cypress forest graveyard. A servant girl comes to assist them out of the carriage, sniffling and refusing to meet their eyes. As the purple-marked coffins are lowered in the earth, and the third is carried away elsewhere, it's almost impossible to hear anything over the sound of so many people sobbing, bemoaning the passing of the king, of the princess, but for all the people with their faces buried in their hands, Ardashir and Roshanak go followed by looks as cold as the winter air.
Through getting off the carriage and approaching the graves, Ardashir doesn't let go of her hand until he absolutely has to. She folds her arms while he unwraps the package he was carrying; he lays down the fruit and halva in the coffin first of his father, then of his sister. He keeps and rewraps one orange and two small disks of halva for himself, then steps back and lowers his head to cue the waiting guards to begin filling the graves with dirt. Other servants, some trembling from their own tears, carry over cuttings from other cypress trees to plant on top of the graves.
Ardashir returns to his mother's side and retakes her hand, and surrounded on all sides by the people's loathing, they stand and watch.