7.
"Both of you remember that from here on you speak to no one," he warned, "the only talking aloud in The Tombs is to The Dead. If you become lost in the tunnels, find a wall map, but do not ask directions. By tradition, you should start with your newest Ancestors, and work backward, visiting all you can before the bells sound to leave The Tombs. They sound in the afternoon for the young, and the evening for the old. North, wait here with Morn for your mother and I. You have a key to the flier and you two may enter it, but let no one else in. Now, make sure you have no food in your pockets, for it is not allowed in The Tombs. Now be off with you and be at peace!"
With his father's blessing North dove from the edge of the cliff, falling some distance to pick up speed. Then he soared upward to the top most Tomb that he had been to so many times. He waved farewell to Morn as he flew off in another direction.
North entered the Tombs and quickly went to his family Crypt, and then found his father's mother and father's caskets. He looked through the clear tops of them and admired his grandmother's beauty which had been well preserved in the Haven way. He stopped only long enough to say prayers to Them. and ask that They give him praise before The Holy Spirit that he may do well in the service of God. He then went on and stopped by a black-topped casket, which contained the body of one of his Uncles who had been killed in the Hashon war. North prayed that even though his body was destroyed, his soul was welcome to The Spirit World. The Angel also noticed a placque for another uncle, whose body was never found, and he prayed for him too. North then took out his list and began to descend into the older Tombs to the Crypts of some of his older Ancestors.
There were other boys in the Tomb visiting, some were the same age as North and Morn, and some who were a year older, who were visiting with their sisters, for no female was to enter The Tombs alone. As North had no sister, he knew that next year he would escort his mother there. That is why that year, he was visiting only his father's kin.
There was an old Crypt, and North stopped at the green place at its top where plants and flowers grew under an artificial light. He carefully removed the small plant he had brought from its small container, and upon selecting an old and withered one, he replaced it with his new gift. Then he made a note on the register there for it to be cared for and who the bill should be charged to. It hardly seemed as if the visit to the Tomb had begun, when the bells rang to signal the end of it, and the robed priests came up the stairways. Northern Star quickly headed for the nearest exit, as were his instructions.
North emerged to see the last rays of the sun as it gently set in the sky. From where he stood it was easy to leap into the air, and fly back to the flier. This is what North did, and he found Morn there. The two lads wiled away the hours talking while they waited for North's mother and father to join them again. But in a few hours time they, too, appeared and they all headed home.