Chapter Text
Some Solstice, Diana thought as she swiped at the sheen of sweat gathering on her brow. A celebration of the Sun wherein she had to be up and laboring before the deity itself had even risen? Aye, truly a joyous occasion.
She supposed that the festivities were likely more enjoyable for those not permanently relegated to acolyte status. Most of the Solari faith rarely had to contend with more than a year or two of the drudgery involved in the actual preparations. However long it took them to be named a proper novice of the faith.
This would be Diana’s sixth year preparing for the celebration of the Solstice. At least she had a handful of other acolytes in tow this year to delegate to, though even the eldest of these was scarcely past her first bleed. Still, even on the rare year that there was only herself and one other, it was hardly the worst day of the year, even for her. A morning packed full of thankless menial labor? That was any given Tuesday.
She could do without rising before the Sun itself, though.
At least today all that was expected of her was some tedium in the morning, and then she was free to go. Theoretically the reason setup was so damn early was to give the younger acolytes a chance to indulge in the celebrations themselves once they were finished, but Diana had come to enjoy taking the day as a reprieve from her peers to hole up in the library by herself instead.
That had been the plan this year as well. Right up until Leona had asked if she’d see her at the celebration. Then, stupidly, she’d said yes, resigning herself to a day of being either ignored by the revelers or heckled by those who’d imbibed perhaps too much. Just on the off-chance she’d get to see Leona there.
Ugh.
She rather wished she could at least get away with the drudgery of setting up tables and food and liquor and harvesting all those damn sunflowers in her more comfortable daily wear. Diana had long since learned that wearing anything but her starched scarlet formal robes on the high holy days got her more questioning than she was willing to endure. In fact, the dresswear might’ve even been her least favorite part of the day. It wasn’t enough that they were wildly uncomfortable, of course they had to be heavy and clumsy to move in as well. The impractically sun-shaped clasp of the golden sash about her waist jabbed her in the stomach multiple times throughout the morning, and she kept having to tug at her clothes when they bunched up around her hips.
The look didn’t even suit her. Non-ritual mirrors were forbidden in the temple as a matter of curbing vanity anyway, but she knew well how sickly the bright, saturated colors made her seem with her pale skin and dark hair. Now she was flushed and sweaty from her morning’s work as well. And Leona hadn’t even shown up yet.
Lovely.
Lost in her thoughts as she was, the sunflower that was unceremoniously shoved into Diana’s face very nearly earned its bearer a palm-strike to the sternum.
“Trium,” she said evenly, taking a measured step back. Her shoulders felt tight. “What is this?”
It wasn’t that Trium was a miscreant. No, if anything, he was very nearly a model student of the faith, second perhaps to only the chosen of the Sun herself. Strong, zealous, handsome (if the tittering of other girls was to be believed). Looking at him now, clever green eyes and a white grin set in a tanned visage, Diana might even understand how he was as well-liked as he was.
But she’d suffered too many cracked ribs in his efforts to impress Leona during spar matches to regard him too fondly.
“Not mine, don’t worry,” he quipped, rolling his shoulder forward to flaunt the bloom pinned to his own sleeve. “But you forgot to take one for yourself.” His grin edged towards mischief. “I guess you don’t normally take them to go hide in the library, huh?”
Diana’s ears burned. At the edge of her vision, she could see a gaggle of teenage boys watching them—friends of his, she supposed. She didn’t like how they were watching their interaction and snickering amongst themselves.
They did something to it, Diana realized, glancing down at the flower in Trium’s outstretched hand. He’d deny it if she accused him, of course, and his record was too clean for anyone else to believe her. And refusing it outright would cause a scene, which would likely get her a solid rap across the knuckles if the elders were feeling lenient.
Her jaw tightened. “Must have slipped my mind,” she agreed, already making plans to swap it for another as she reluctantly took the sunflower in two fingers. “Thank you. For your... consideration.”
A smile and a wink, and he was off again. One of the teenage boys clapped him heartily on the shoulder as they began to meander off in the direction of the mead casks.
Diana left the flower in the grass, plucking another from the stock of braids on a nearby table as soon as no one was looking. She braided the long stem thoughtlessly into the braided cord at her hip. There. No more harassment on that front, at least.
She shot a wary glance back at the gaggle of her peers already tapping into the stock of liquor. It was still early—too early, even, for Leona to make an appearance after her morning meditations yet—but Diana supposed it made sense that the first to appear at the festival grounds would be teenage boys eager to begin drinking.
Little by little, the temple’s congregation began to filter in over the next hour: novices in their own gold and scarlet finery; the high priests weighed down in their cloaks and plates; the elders in rare high spirits in their own livery. Diana even thought she saw one of the rare priest-generals of the Iron Solari order amongst the crowd, her heavy, battle-worn armor polished to a mirror finish for the festivities. Diana merely edged away from the bulk of the crowd—more hastily, still, when one of the musicians in attendance began to pound out a lively tattoo on his drum, inciting some of the more inebriated of the assemblage into a rowdy dance.
Well. If nothing else, she could at least count on the knowledge that if Leona had mentioned seeing her at the festival, she’d definitely get to see Leona at some point. Leona was many things, but unreliable wasn’t one of them.