Ia and the Gravedigger

Ia and his disciples traveled through the mountains, and they drew near to a valley where a small village lay. They heard echoing shouts and jeers coming from the valley, and Ia bade his disciples change their course from the main road. As they descended to the valley, they entered the village square and saw all its residents gathered there, around a pyre which had been constructed. A man, his body streaked with blood and dirt, was lashed to a stake in the middle of this pyre, and the villagers were leading a chant which seemed to mock and deride him as they threw his belongings upon the pyre to burn with him.

'What is going on here?' asked Ia of one of the men nearest to the pyre, who cavorted in a cloak limned with red feathers and who waved a lit torch through the air in a dreadful pattern.

'This man is a gravedigger, and he has brought a curse upon our village and our lands!' the man answered. 'The bodies which he was given to be interred do not remain buried within the earth, but rise from the grave as a foul plague which murders our friends and families and lays waste to our crops!'

Ia studied the cloaked man for but a second, then snatched the torch from his hand and extinguished it. 'This man is not guilty of any crime, and you condemn him falsely. Free him at once, and you shall be told the truth of things. Continue with this mockery and the plague and misery you experience will be magnified one hundred fold.'

The cloaked man drew himself up and demanded of Holy Ia, 'Who are you, stranger, to speak of our ways and traditions suchly? Sacrifice must be made of the one who calls the dead from their graves!'

'This man is not the cause of your woes. He shall not suffer for a crime of which he is innocent.' Ia's stern voice shook the cloaked man's spirits, and the villagers relented in their grisly ceremony to the last man, and the gravedigger was freed. The man fell to his knees and gave thanks, for he recognized the power and the grace which filled Ia and which had spared his life. 'Tell me, Holy Ia, how may I repay the debt of my life which you have given me?' the gravedigger asked, weeping.

Ia laid a hand upon the man's forehead, blessing and marking him as one of his Chosen, and then bade him to rise. 'You shall commit yourself to traveling for the rest of your days, seeking out others who inter the deceased, and you will tell them that they shall share that burden with my disciples across all the land. The dead will not find their immortal souls cursed by burial in the earth, or shackled through immersion in the waters, or consigned to flames. I and my disciples will shepherd their journey to the realm which waits beyond the Destruction of the body, and in this way will their souls be rightly placed and not mishandled.'

The gravedigger regained his feet, claimed the few things he possessed which were not yet destroyed by the gathered crowd, and set off along the road to begin the quest with great purpose, and he labored at his task as Ia had commanded for the remainder of his life.