Ancient Things We Hold

Chapter 13

A Final Promise

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One could not know what would have happened if Hodaya and Aldwyn had remained friends throughout their adolescence. Nonetheless, upon their reconciliation at eighteen, it soon seemed like nothing would have been different to what they were like at that moment.

He was trying very hard to be utterly respectful in light of their previous meetings. In return, she thought it high time to end her hypocrisy and listen to him on his customs and beliefs. Of course, she had been surrounded by them from a young age and was socially obligated to be aware of the others' culture, but she realised there was still much she did not know; she wrote down everything she learnt from him and added it to her notes from her lessons with the rabbi.

"My mother spends more time in prayer than anything else," he told her once after she asked about his family's religious inclinations. "My older sister and my little brother are similarly devoted, but the rest of my siblings and my father mostly only turn to the Gods during festivals, or dire situations. Religion is a part of life for them instead of something truly prominent,"

"And you?"

"I don't know. I have been confused about religion since I met you," he said. "You see, we know there are other religions and Gods. Even the King worships in other ways to us. However, your ideas are so utterly different. How can one of us be right and one of us be wrong with so much in between?"

"You shouldn't think about if it's right or wrong. All that's important is that you fully believe in what resonates with you,"

"I don't know. Could I pray to your G-d?" he asked.

"Yes. Whenever you want. He will be listening,"   she told him.

And so continued their exploration of religion and philosophy, all which was in a much kinder nature than her sharp arguments with Tobijah had been.

Hodaya and Aldwyn were wildly different in upbringing and beliefs. However, they shared many similar ideals such as diplomacy. For them, the point of debating was to find peace and understanding between contrasting ideas.

The many things they shared isolated them from the turmoil of the world for a while. Even when summer came round again and both their responsibilities tripled, they tried to meet as much as possible. Often he would bring her books to read for she knew the Jewish art, culture, theory and history off by heart but was quite unknown to everything else. She read them whenever she could.

Sometimes she would be sitting in the slope of the tree with one of his book in her hand when he arrived. She would be so engrossed that his mere voice would frighten her. However, she couldn't help it. The knowledge that his books brought were from worlds away.

She learnt of ancient philosophers, mathematics, medicine and (her favourite subject) the many religions that flecked the world. Most of it she could hardly understand, but such interest was flared within her as she absorbed the words. Whenever she opened a book she felt as through she had the whole world at her fingertips, so she could scarcely contemplate how casually Aldwyn treated it all.

For example, she found herself particularly enthralled with one drawing of a flash of light in the sky. The diagram was surrounded by pages of writing which covered all the superstitions and beliefs that followed it. "I saw one once. My papa said it was a sign of G-d's presence but look at all these theories! Aldwyn, which one is correct?" she asked.

"It's a comet. Comets are bad omens," he said decidedly, "They signify death. You should be much afeared when you see one,"

"But look! This man believed they are formed from the Earth's atmosphere. How splendidly
liberal and unromantic is that?"