Every Shedfall there comes a Sunday when the faithful walk out to the Warm Ridge, lie down along the red stone in a single patient row, and discover that the stone is not warm. This year it was yesterday. The Ministry of Weather, which is one priest who looks up, confirmed the clouds at dawn and declined to comment further.
Fourteen faithful attended. Three were eggs on their first bask. One was a gnome who had been told it was a picnic and stayed out of courtesy.
The Order of the Afternoon
- The lying down. Done in silence, nose to tail, as always. Two of the eggs lay down facing north. They were not corrected. The Ridge does not mind which way you face; only the sun does, and the sun was not there.
- The first hour. Nobody moved. A passing guard asked whether anyone needed a healer. A Scalekeeper answered, "Only patience," and the guard wrote that down as a symptom.
- The question. In the second hour an egg named Pell lifted her head and asked what the point of basking was if nothing was warming. This is the question every egg asks on the first cold bask. It is the reason we hold the first cold bask.
- The answer. An Inner Scale elder, without opening her eyes, said: "You did not come for the warmth. You came to practice staying where you were put." Pell lay back down. Four minutes later the clouds parted for nine seconds, and the whole row sighed at once, and nobody said anything about it, which was correct.
What the Ridge Teaches in the Cold
Hold the stone as you would hold the world: not because it gives you something, but because you said you would.
The Chronicle tells us Xal'Reth chose to stay on the Night of Stillness when nothing about staying was comfortable. A bask with sunshine is pleasant. A bask without it is devotion. The eggs were given a small warm stone each on the walk home, which is not doctrine, only kindness, and is permitted.
The next bask is set for the following Sunday, weather permitting, and also weather not permitting. Bring a cloak. Face whichever way you like. For the full rite, see the Rites, and for the Ridge itself, the Legends.
Hold light. And let go well. Glory to Xal'Reth.
Glory to Xal'Reth.