"From the soil, you have arisen, and to the soil, you shall return."
"May Narth, Goddess of the earth and fire, and, Kubriq, God of Bronze and Ceramics, assist you on your journey back to the soil."
The three spectators cupped their hands as a bearded man finished reading out esoteric, short incantations from a bronze slip in his hands.
The man leaned down, kissed his hands, and caressed a small, bloodied forehead using that hand.
The forehead belonged to a newborn baby, whose mom was still gasping, while the bloody surroundings indicated the process that she had just undergone.
The man who recited incantations was looking around the hut discreetly, and then, he recovered to a standing position and took a look at the man who sat next to the woman who had just gone through childbirth.
His eyes were solely focused on her, as a worried glint passed through his eyes at the sight of her pain.
"Do you know what you will name your child?" The man asked in a hushed tone.
The husband raised his head, and a contemplative flash passed through his eyes before he replied, "Anku...Siria and I agreed that we would name our son Anku."
Even as she shook profusely and gasped through the pain, the man's wife, Siria, still nodded through her closed eyelids.
"Anku? 'My light'? That is a beautiful name."
Another voice came into the scene this time.
It was undoubtedly a woman's voice, and its owner was a pale-skinned woman wearing unusually thick clothing.
The husband and the bearded man held a strange look towards the man, consisting of a slight apprehension, and if one looked close enough, a sense of absolute terror.
"Babyl..." Siria called out to her husband, albeit in a very pained tone.
Babyl immediately turned back and took his wife's hand, caressing her cheek in an affectionate manner.
Then, he resolvedly stood up and looked at the pale woman with a frown.
"Doctor, will my wife be fine?"
The pale woman responded with an incredulous expression, almost as if she took great offense to the question, and clicked her tongue.
"Are you doubting the efficacy of the medicine gave you? If she remains careful with her eating and takes the herbs regularly, she will recover in half...no, a quarter of the time it would have taken her otherwise," The doctor spoke with a confident tone.
Babyl smiled bitterly and gave no further comments.
Afterward, the bearded man speedily exited the hut, and the doctor began packing up her tools to do the same.
As she was leaving, she turned back a single time, and inquired with confusion amidst her pupils, "Don't they hold the birth ceremonies in the village anymore? They usually make a big deal about that."
This single sentence looked to be ordinary, mundane, and of a purely curious intention, but strangely, Siria gasped louder as soon as she heard it, and one of her hands weakly clenched her chest.
Babyl grew pale, and stuttered as he said, "You're a doctor, that shouldn't concern you, should it?"
"Fine."
The doctor also left, leaving the couple alone, with only their infant and the anxiety of becoming parents.
Babyl held up the baby in his embrace and brought him closer to Siria, who instinctively hugged him loosely.
Through her pained cries, one could hear her muttering, "I will not submit myself to the past, and of that strength, you shall carry it with you, my love, Anku, my light..."
"Siria..."
_________
The doctor who helped with the earlier childbirth did not live in the village she had mentioned but on the outskirts of a forest nearby.
As she approached her house, she recalled a strange phenomenon she witnessed today.
When she was assessing the newborn's health, her fine bronze needle shook, albeit only slightly, when it came nearer to the baby's skin.
She was a doctor, and a very accomplished one at that, and her hands were steadier than a statue, so she couldn't understand why it happened.
"Bronze is a particularly good conductor of natural energies, but a newborn cannot have that much innate energy, can they?" She giggled to herself, discounting the ludicrous possibility.
"Have I been too anxious lately? Maybe I should go to sleep a little bit earlier tonight."
She shrugged and entered her abode.