Radeon knew they could not delay. A quarter of the incense had already burned away, ash building in the catches like time piling up.
"Chant with me," he demanded.
He sent the chant's cadence to Fay through noiseless qi.
Two throats. One line. No gaps for the dark to slip through.
"O Lord, God of the living and the dead, look upon this offering we set forth in reverence."
"See the sincerity of our hearts. We do not come with excess, nor with contempt, but with what we can give without bitterness."
"Have mercy on the departed soul from ages past, and let not our poverty become an insult, nor our haste become a sin."
"Let our words be clean before You. If we would lie, restrain our tongues. If we would deceive, open our eyes to our own guilt."
"For we do not speak to flatter or to bargain, but to confess what we are. The same sinners pleading for mercy."
