People who die in Floralill are first transported to the holy city of Thales. It is here that the body is bathed as if they were part of the ruling families, even if they were poor. This is achieved through using fresh water taken from the blessed river that flowed directly from the King’s Mountain into the city as well as fresh flowers picked by the handmaidens from the Shrine of the Flower God. The priestesses of the Shrine bathe the body themselves, careful of the rigger mortis hardening the body. Those who are transported from further out take longer to bathe than the fresher ones, but regardless, the priestesses are always thorough and use great care with every corpse that comes to the Shrine.

After the bathing is the dressing. The dressing is chosen by the families of the deceased, who often choose to dress their beloveds in the family’s emblem and colors in holy dresses and gowns befitting of their social status. The lower classes tend to stray from emblems and colors, and more commonly choose dressings that honor the Flower God rather than the family. Between the dressing and the ceremony, the family of the deceased often make the trip to Thales with the handmaidens who make the journey to tell them of the fate of their family member. While these travels are often taxing on the handmaidens themselves, as they are often too young to be priestesses or too old to carry out their duties as such, they see the journey as a holy one. In Thales, under the Grace of the Flower God, every person is a spout of Their Goodness. When the sprout has become Withered, it is only right to return them to the Flower God with as much honor as possible.

The ceremony never takes long. The deceased always lay in a bed of fresh dirt, dug just enough to fit the body comfortably. Their hands are always placed on their chest, their right hand clutching the fioreblosom, the odd flower with several jagged petals and a small, thin stem that is native to the holy city, with their left hand laying over top the right hand’s knuckles. The family of the deceased then pick flowers from the Shrine’s flowerbed, placing them into the bed of dirt with their beloved to encircle them in the Flower God’s Love.

Then, the prayer. It goes as follows:

To the Flower God, the Withered returns. Come back to us a sprout once more,—here is where the name of the deceased is mentioned,—with love and grace from the Flower God. Rest in the dirt, at peace, until you are ready to sprout again.

With the completion of the prayer, a member of the family is given a flaming stick from one of the Shrine’s priestesses. It does not matter who in the family receives the stick; some families have the father of the deceased, or their mother, wife, husband, sister, brother, cousin, close friend. These decisions vary from family to family but are always discussed with the deceased before death. The flaming stick, after all, is the most important part of the ceremony. It is an honor to be the one who wields the flaming stick.

Whoever receives the stick does not have to speak, but many utter the phrase, “To the Flower God, the Withered returns,” before setting the body of the deceased on fire. The flames always start at the feet of the deceased, allowing for time to pass and for onlookers of the ceremony to move away from the body to a safe distance away.

As soon as the flames contact the fioreblosom held by the deceased, the body erupts in a cloud of pink smoke. To be clear, the body does not explode; rather, the fioreblosom they are holding explodes, emitting the smoke that matches the color of the flower itself. The smoke does not have any smell, nor does it burn the eyes of anyone like that of normal smoke that comes from fire. It is simply the smoke of the fioreblosom.

And once the smoke clears, the body of the deceased is gone, returned to the Flower God until they are ready to sprout once more.