A Little Left to Give (Forgotten Series #8)

Prologue

The morning sun was bright through the windows behind me and I could see the tired looks on some of the younger priestesses' faces. They had spent a fair amount of time last night to worship Mene during the full moon, when her eyes was open to us the widest, where she could potentially see them better. They would learn, in time, to manage their sleeping schedules better, not every full moon under Mene's wide eye needed to be seen, smaller worships were just as effective.

Mene never gave us more than we could take. If they were not capable of it, then they would not be there. They were priestesses for a reason. It was the reason for my sermon, my lesson.

"Mene, she is our guiding light." I started slow and the older worshippers nodded. I watched as the main door opened and Tulip and her gaggle of pups came in. The two former Alphas holding hands openly and Tara, the young female, following behind Tulip. I was glad to see them. Them joining my lessons was rare, so I always enjoyed seeing them coming in.

I nodded at the formidable female and she sneered, the scar pulling up her upper lip making the expression more twisted. I looked around the gathering. "She guides us in our lives and she never gives us more than we can withstand." My bare feet brushed against the stone of the raised dais I stood upon. Tulip snorted and I understood her disagreement. "Mene is not the ruler of our destinies. She does not weave or twist our life's chord, the three sisters of fate are in charge of life and death and they weave the fabric of our lives but Mene guides us all the same if we are willing to listen."

"She will never allow more than we can withstand but if the fates choose to be cruel, she is there all the same to guide us back to where we need to be. If she cannot stop our troubles, she will soothe us in the aftermath, guide us to be better." I touched the top of the stone altar as I walked along to light some incense. "Take, for instance, the lost female who was brought to us, broken, bleeding, her sanity in shattered pieces. The fates had delivered her a cruel blow that Mene left weeping, unable to help prevent the destruction wrought upon her."

"The one that caused Mene to bring about the curse for the Old Ways, right?" A young priestess held up her hand high and eager, clearly more interested now than she had when she had first come in. In fact a lot of the tired looking ones seemed more interested.

I bowed my head slightly, "The one and the same. Fate can move in strange ways and despite her powers, our mother goddess is not all knowing. Even she cannot predict the whims of fate." I struck a match and lit a few candles and the stick of incense. "But we must remember that she loves us, she guides us. Even if it seems cruel, her love is kindness." It had taken me a long time to come to terms with the way Mene loved Lilith, what she had her do to that poor unfortunate babe that had grown within her. But I understood now, that Mene's love could seem cruel but at the rawest core it was always a kindness.

"She guided that poor female to our hands and we cared for her and then Mene guided her into the hands of a new male." A new life, a blessing to Lilith from Mene, an apology that she could not change her fate, could not stop it. "With this guidance Lilith was able to change, to heal, to be better." I looked over them all. "Mene's love is both love and cruelty, fair and unfair, a great kindness and injustice. She is our dichotomy. She is both and yet none. How we see her actions, her guidance, is dependant upon how we understand her and ourselves. Her actions that once could be seen as cruelty, when you look back, can then seem as the soothing kindness they are."

I paused for a brief moment. "That female... Mene guided her to cut herself, rid her own body of a child she did not want or wish for. I viewed this... quite arrogantly, as a failing of the female, as a horrible and cruel injustice." I felt shame whenever I thought about how I had thought, so arrogant in my position. It had not been Lilith's fault, it had not been Mene's fault. Th responsibility for it all had lay with Adam, the twice cursed male that he had been. He was dead and I was glad for it. "But yet... as Mene guided Lilith onwards from the scene of that destruction, I began to see the kindness it was."