Everyone was happy at the wedding and somber at the funeral, as it was normal to be.
There was anger in the eyes of some of the coenobites when they found
out that Ledo had married Cassta. They could now do nothing to her.
She was indeed above their rights of having her bare a Holy Child.
Cassta saved his darling Ledo, just in time.
To most, however, the saving of a life or a soul meant little when compared to the loss of one such innocence as Mercedes. All that there was to benefit from salvation was the relief that it brought to the saved, and those close to them. Relief, by itself, had no real value.
Good and Evil each made their own laments.
While mourners and wailers cried for the death of an innocent young woman, so did the monks at Halls, cry and mourn for the brutal death of their best and most respected Cardinal Allen.
As it was; a customary show of respect to a dearly-departed coenobite, a pure woman was chosen to be entombed with the body. This chosen woman willingly accepted requests made to her to share her eternity with the dead cleric, and carried with her the love and honour of each individual member at Halls. The love and respect was given to her, through physical sex, by each monk, before she was taken to the tomb with the deceased brother. While the corpse lay in state, there was a room set aside, adjacent the big hall in the chapel. The chosen women lay unclad in soft beds and each was fornicated with by each individual at Halls; from the lowest novice to the ArchBishop himself.
Prior to the monks looking upon the body of their dead brother, they entered the room and gave their all to the woman. During the copulation, the men repeatedly chanted: "Take this to our friend; a sign that we love him!"
At the end of the day, when all the men had gone through with their ritual respect, they took the limp, unconscious woman and set her on top of Allen's dead body. Both were then carried to the grotto, in the cliffs at the ocean's edge, and were sealed inside, forever. From the moment of the bodies' entombment, all those that were in Halls Cathedral abstained from any and all normal human functioning for three days. During this three day period — a further show of respect for their dead — no one ate or had sexual intercourse and during this time they kept themselves from sleep, and prayed for the Cardinal's soul.
From the Cathedral spires the Rogjans called out to the countryside some cantorial chants, announcing and honouring, and strangely, even canonizing the Cardinal Allen.
On the evening of the third day, all those residing at Halls made preparations for a day of feasting, and at sunrise the feeding began. To enjoy this day to the fullest, the coenobites brought to Halls a caravan of women from Iÿnondan and they caught up from their three day celibacy.