The Threnody

The Threnody was the youngest acolyte ever bound to a void-priest of the Eighth Mortuary Order. His master, Kaelos, kept a personal mourning-song for every captain whose final rites she had performed, and sang the list in full once a year. It took eleven hours. When she died of a slow illness, the song passed to him by sealed rite. He was twenty-two.

He has sung it every midwinter since, alone, on the bridge of the Slow Procession, with the long-range comm open on a frequency the Dominion no longer monitors. The Order was dissolved fifteen years ago. Its rolls went into an office that does not believe in personal songs. He believes the Order is alive in him until he stops. He has not stopped. He takes contracts to pay for the broadcast.