The Singing by Katherine Genet

Author:Katherine Genet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wych Elm Books

28

Prayer and deepening into their spiritual lives.

Healthy habits in the changing world.

Community support.

Well, Winsome thought. A lot could be done with that sort of brief. She sat back in her chair at the vicarage kitchen table and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. And hadn’t she already decided? To do exactly this?

Still. She hadn’t expected it all to just fall into her lap.

That made Winsome think of something, and she frowned into space for a moment, then got up and went upstairs to her bedroom, and plucked up the book Stephan had given her the day Cù had led her down to see him and Erin. She’d popped it there that evening, but hadn’t opened it, her breath catching whenever she looked at it. Runes. Some sort of divination tool, she’d thought, unable to overcome the hesitancy her faith had instilled in her over such things.

Now, she took it downstairs with her, and slid out the piece of paper on which Stephan had drawn the strange symbols.

At the table, she sat back down and flipped through the book, pausing to read part of the introduction, her brows raised as she realised the symbols were a great deal more than just something for fortune telling. At last, she looked up the three symbols Stephan had copied down for her.

Tiwaz. Winsome cleared her throat, read through the meaning for the rune, then read it again, out loud.

‘Victory and honour comes when one grows into the life demanded by spirit, not heedless of the difficulties and trials along the way, but upright and full of the conviction that comes when one unfurls in balance with the universe.’

Well, she thought. If that wasn’t a message she needed to hear. She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with the truth that she’d unwittingly discovered.

‘Into the life demanded by spirit,’ she repeated. Then blinked and flipped through the pages seeking out the next symbol.

‘Thuriasaz,’ she read, and cleared her throat again. ‘The threats of the world seem to loom over you, and their shadow looks vast and dark. Know however, that all problems must be dealt with in spirit before you can act in the world, and the spirit is bright enough to cast aside all shadow.’

Winsome sat back, feeling winded. How could such simple things like these seem to sum up her life as it stood right at that moment? She shook her head and cast her eyes over the words again. What did it mean, that all problems must be dealt with in spirit before you can act in the world? She tapped her fingers against the piece of paper with Stephan’s symbols on it, then shook her head and found the last of the three.

‘Isaz. The winter landscape freezes. The wind howls across the ice. Know too, that if you are frozen, unable to act, that after the winter freeze comes the thaw, and new life is born from the time of cold and stillness.’

Winsome put the book down and reached up to touch her cheeks, startled to find that they were wet with silent tears.

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