All Souls Day, Dia de Los Muertos, completion of Diwali, 2024: Reverend Jane

She had fasted in the cave for four days, and all of the company from lit candles had burned away. Reverend Jane had removed her hat and let down her hair; she had put her holster to one side and changed out of her clothing into the loose cotton pants and shift that served as coverage on washing day. Her physical comfort was not a high priority, but she managed to tend the small fire and stay thawed under a couple of blankets. It was the voices to which her attention turned and stayed; the ones of earth, air, fire, water, and elsewhere; the ones that frightened her and the ones that reminded her of happy moments past and promised. "You are getting SO grey!" Katie had whispered into one ear (her body returned to the earth a very long time ago). "Never been very successful in the vanity department," Jane had whispered back, and her friend had laughed the way she'd done it back in the day. It was the tenderness and the joy she would take with her as she readied to leave the cave today. "These are the worthy things," the reverend reminded herself. "The things so light we forget to carry them." Like armor, these, and as vital to life as food and water.