It was still very early that All Hallow's Day morning. Genova, covered with a black cloak, walked silently to the Widu Graveyard. The graveyard gates were opened and she silently proceeded to a certain spot without delay.
There, a seemingly unmarked tombstone at the corner of the graveyard, hidden from most people's view, was where she headed. To the unfamiliar eye, nothing can be seen on the tombstone save for some cracks. But for a Kelron, the markings were evident. Inscripted there were the names of her parents. They were not buried in Widu, but Genova brought with her the ashes of her parents in an urn. How her mother, a supposedly phoenixi, died was still a mystery to her. Her father, on the other hand, died a hero. Only one person knew how her mother died, and she'll deal with that person some other time. She buried the ashes under marked tombstone when they moved to Widu.
As she reached that tombstone, she suddenly fell on her knees and removed her hood. She clenched her fist and bowed her head. Thoughts raced in her head as memories of the past and recent tragedies flowed in her mind. She ached inside and found consolation in the midst of her parents' tombstone. A tear dropped on the tombstone just between her parent's names. As the tear touched the cold stone, her wings of fire appeared and spread as if giving honor to the dead, illuminating the dark graveyard like a giant candle offering.
After ten minutes, Genova's wings disappeared as she stood. She covered her head with her hood and silently left the graveyard the way that she came.
Shielded by the `Mists of Invisibility` Merlyn watches as Genova pays her respects.
He looks as she leaves and sighs.
"That is what life is Genova." he says knowing that she will not hear his words except as a breeze through a trees branches.
"It is what we leave behind us that matters."
"I hope that you find peace."
Teide came at last to the graveyard...to which she was long overdue. She walked along the familiar cold headstones. The air had the warmth of summer, pulled with the humidity in the breaking of the dawn, it cast a hazy halo of mist and dew. She followed after the graves-keeper who whistled cheerfully swinging his lantern back and forth. He had a slight limp she noted as she followed, a slight strain in his left knee. Maybe he took an arrow to the knee. His tune was cheerful and grim as the rest of his corpse-like appearance as he carried a tombstone in his claw-like fingers. She knew the tune from her more eventful days in the guild halls as a pirate song called Hoist the Colors. The smell of rum on his breath and the squint in his sullen eyes told her enough about him. He smelled of grave soil and copper. His finger nails untrimmed and a gold tooth on his left canine were proof enough if had not seen the tattoo on the underside of his wrist. His soul was thin and tangled in strands of grayish blue...frayed and twisted bundles tied to the soil. He would die within the year probably somehow tied to the alcohol. His spirit would linger here for he believed in nothing and his life had been vile in his youth. He somehow survived the sea...probably returned to his hometown to find a shell and merely stayed here because it was a simple job. She closed her eyes using her ears to follow him. Teide did not want to see. She did not want to hear the spirits who lingered here. Whatever changes her souls were undergoing...it was slow. She was ceasing to be anything she recognized...a little more mad. A long 18 years she had been on this earth...and already she was here again...losing count.
They came through past the main body of the graveyard and into a very secluded and hidden corner. She saw four grave stones. It surprised her and caused her to stop. Two graves were merely cracked pieces of stone lingering...yet through the bond she had been blessed to experience the inscriptions did flow into her mind...memories she had been given to recognize the names of Genova's and Karcier's parents. She fought the lump in her throat. Teide's eyes slowly inched and lingered on the third grave. Tears welled up in her eyes. Genova....she signaled to the graves keeper to stay there a moment as she stepped up to the grave and ran her fingers over the craved inscription affectionately. Her index slide over the smooth stone and fell on wilted flowers. Tears fell down her cheeks slowly and warmed her cheeks. She tasted the salt on her lips and never bothered to push them away. Was this what they had come to? Did no one care? She felt anger tap her heart. Then she turned her head and her eyes fell on the newest addition. Karcier. Her dear broken brother....he gave unto death. Who had put up his tombstone? The flowers were barely alive and dark. This is why she had come...she returned to Widu to place his marker and tend the graves. She had hoped..but it seemed no one else thought to come...see....WHY?!
Teide buried her face in her knees to hide the tears. The dew began to cling to her but she didn't care. It sickened her to the core. All they had given, sacrificed and fought for. They had fought the powers, given their lives for this country...their ideals and convictions and were never wavering...Teide knew...the sleepless nights, waiting for Genova to come home exhausted and weary with a cup of cider...just to see her smile. Karcier trying to gather the masses, encourage and fight...and yet in the end....all came to nothing didn't it? No one even came to see they were taken care of or thought of. She sat at their graves staring at the soil. Their spirits were gone but these graves...were all she had left of them and the last fleeting connection she had to their spirits. Teide had been away too long...
"Dear friends, you were both too good for this world. You gave too much until it took you both. I told you to rest...tell me...how to help...I failed you both my dear ones. I was not strong enough to storm the castle...I'm still too weak...I could not protect you from yourselves...or how twisted this reality is....but that is why I loved you both so much. You were too good, too hard-working and ultimately too selfless. I'm sorry...I'm so sorry I couldn't save you...could not recognize how much danger you were in. I took for granted the peace you both gave me...the home you let me feel for a short time. I was so wrapped up in my pain I failed to see...now you're gone. If I could piece my soul together...I would want my spirit to join yours. Whatever the history of the kelron and fallen...you were my family...my friends..."
She closes her eyes again and struggles to find the raggedness in her breath and the heaviness in her heart. She begins in frustration to pull up the weeds. She pulls the vine off the stone and sweeps off the dirt. Getting covered in soil and burrs she did not care. Teide replanted new flowers and watered the old. She pulled up the dead flowers and pried the moss from the edges of the graves. Doing so she lost 20 points of her alignment but she did not care. She cleaned and tended the graves until they were fresh and meticulously manicured. She growled and let the tears fall.
"Is this all our memories come to? I'm sorry...so so sorry. If this is all I can do for you....I failed you both. I couldn't save Karcier...I couldn't protect him from himself Genova...I'm so sorry. Karcier...I'm sorry. I did not want things to happen this way. I meant to strengthen you and give you a fresh life. I never meant....I never meant to hurt you...why didn't you come to me when you were tired? I took this contract....for you and her. All I can do now...is fight so Widu can never be in Fenian hands again....I will somehow...what else can I do? What direction can I have? I don't trust anyone now...I love but I can't trust...you were my light. If no one else will remember...I will."
She kisses the grave stones and hugs the cold stone. Her tears fall on them. She was alone again with a big hole in her heart she did not want to fill. She felt the demon rise up in her....pain....beautiful sorrow and pain reminding her of them. The memories hurt but she promised herself and them...no matter how they hurt she would not forget Karcier's jokes or even how tired and pale he looked as he faded away...how angry his last moments felt and betrayed. Or Genova's sweet smile, eager eyes...or how she wept when life turned on her. She'd never forget how Genova forgave...even as she hung...someone the world did NOT deserve. With closed eyes she tried to ease herself recalling the happier times. She giggled as the funny memory of Rick and Genova breaking down the tavern walls in a good game. She laughed as she remembered how Genova laughed when Rick cannoned Teide straight through two walls of the storage room...Rick.
She stood up and looked at the grave keeper still lingering. "Where is the Former Ogre King's grave?"
The graves-keeper scratched his chin trying to remember, "Hmmmm." he looked up at the sky which was pink with the sunrise. "You know he's been buried but no one has marked it. I did that just recently. He was a conjurer aye? Well I don't think he's going to rise up been a good while it has." his voice was raspy and suffered a hiss from a missing tooth.
Teide frowned as her anger needed to go somewhere. What was happening to Widu in her absence that even a king was forgotten? Did the dead have no right to be given a moment...was development so enthralling that the former ceased to be recognized....Rick, her friend, apprentice...and her King was dead. How many was she to bury in her lifetime and tend? To remember his excitement as she introduced the dark arts to him, to summon up his own undead servants...he clapped like an excited child and caused such lovely disturbances...he helped Karcier and played with Genova. He was no saint and that was all the more endearing. "It seems where I planned to have the tombstone already has one. I would like you to place that over the king's grave." She looks at the night roses she had tucked away and planned to use on Karcier's grave...."And dress it with these."
"As you say Madame."
They walked to Rick's grave and she watched as he etched out the inscription according to her instructions. Her eyes were hollow but her mind was whirling. Nothing made sense anymore. What she believed of people was false and those she had trusted to have better sense were traitorous at best. The wall over her heart and the coldness in her core was stronger than ever. She would smile after today and be friendly and curious as ever. She would prank and laugh...but they would never touch her core unless it was a strong and worthy hand that dared to pass the barbed edges. People were swallow at best, easy to believe the surface of what they perceived. Her hate, anger were always there. Insane, strange, unstable...weak but strong..enslaved. Teide didn't care what they thought they knew of her. Some mistook her sacrifices as betrayal or unsteadiness...but what could they understand of motives? Sometimes acting crazy or simply being a loon by natural appointment was an easy defense against the world. She had come today to mark one friend to find her dearest ones left in disgrace and to bury another. Life was not unfair. She never expected it to be. When the grave keeper was finished she let him return to his ale and looked at the grave.
"Rick....I will miss you. Next time I will bring you a meat pie. I'm sorry. In the end I am quite useless."
She sighed and sat in the graveyard for a long time. What she wouldn't give to hear them one last time....but they were gone. Another chapter of her life closed and she had to pick up and start again. Amladris' words never left her..."Why don't you just accept happiness?" She would. If only there was anything to be happy about. She would try to enjoy the moment. A time was coming when she would have to fight those she called friends and family. Her path would not be easy but it never was to start with. She could endure sadness, loss even a stab in the back. She missed them though terribly. Would they know how much? Someday....she would find a way to bring Karcier's spirit to the planes it was supposed to dwell with Genova. She would be with them. She got up and ran a comforting hand on Rick's new headstone. "I'll be back Big Guy." she forced a smile for him then proceeded to the direction of the gate.
A memory Memories, what are they but tiny fragments of the person that once held them all. They hold dear the moments that scared them most, that they cherished and never wanted to let go. They are memories, fleeting and just out of our grasps for most our lives yet for those unique moments we can see them, read them and understand them. Because it is only by remembering those that died, that they truly live on within us.
Pyreflies floated around the graveyard, slowly descending onto Genova’s grave. The bond that this spirit and Teide had had drawn them to this place, for the last words…thoughts before they disappeared and returned to the planet.A faded ghost appeared, although none but the one that shared the bond would see it. It placed a hand on the tombstone and lowered its head as it spoke into nothingness, or were they thoughts to be heard ?
-Dear sweet Sister…have I failed you, where was it that I went wrong…that we lost what we had so valiantly fought for… that now we are nothing but names in history and not memories in others thoughts as we leave this world.- there was a pause –“We fought to gain freedom, that is what we thought was right…because our family needed it…deserved it…and.. for a moment- there is the sense of pride and joy – We had it, we had our family…our love..but it slipped past our hands…when the drums of politics sounded…when those that waged a different war sought to use us…you left me on my own…my little sister…why couldn’t you let me protect you… I was a hero to my wife and a father to my children…and now I have failed them all…-
The ghost faded and reappeared by its own tombstone. –I realize now, that no matter the lands, the towns and house freedom is never there, freedom is within our hearts and for me my freedom was my family…yet I was blinded by a cause…a dream…my body was never truly mine… only a soul with magic and wings.-There is sadness – Yet I failed them…my family and my friends…I let corruption wrap its hands around our freedom and have it controlled from shadowy figures from across our lands…I tried to make it right… to get the corrupt to admit her wrongs…but so stubborn and self-righteous are the De La Croix…I of all should know… I was a Kelron Cei’ra…then a Kienian Solder… but I couldn’t uphold my duty as either nor as a family man…-
-What am I…a monster or a soldier…the answer?” there is a pause. “Neither, I am me…a fleeting memory that soon shall fade away…and yet I won’t truly fade away…because she holds my life so dear…she keeps mine intertwined to her own soul, a gift and a curse…but to her…a gift none the less.-
Just Smile
The ghost then finally reappeared besides Teide and placed a vanishing hand on her shoulder. -Sister of mine, I am sorry…for all that I couldn’t do. My soul is yours, if only partially yet I want to give you..a gift … something that you deserve and should have had long ago…it is your choice to discard it …use it ..or keep it for when you need it most…but we all deserve to smile…most of all you, you deserve to know how it looks, how it feels…to be happy. So that when you go and find your own… then you can truly smile…and know that it is yours…so to you…my sweet sister I share my love, my passion to my family and… my happiness…-
This faded memory shared its thoughts, so simply was happiness that it flickered like a candles flame at the slightest of fearful memory yet there was so much happiness in him, he smiled even during the worst of times because the worst of events may happen to you… but there is always a future to strive for and with time wounds will heal. So smile, just smile…and if you can’t then allow yourself to adore these few moments once… and know that.. I am proud of you, that I wouldn’t change you nor would I ask anything of you, only that you go on and remember us, that can’t be hard right ? *A flicker of a childish smile*
They weren't going to be there...
Two criminals like them? Hung for their greed, on multiple crimes of robbery, fraud, impersonation, mugging, and well, you name it, and if it is short of murder and made money, they had been accused of it. Vagabonds like those two were probably thrown out of the walls of the city to the vultures. Yet to Youken, they hadn't just been family, but they had been good people. Just because they had done the best they could with the skills they had, they still hadn't turned an eye to the hideous thing that they had found. Not only that, but they had nurtured the hapless creature into a boy worthy of fending for himself.
Not that it mattered to a boy like Youken. He had never been brought up religiously, and he was hardly going to start now. They were gone, and whatever and wherever they were now, if they even were anything any more, was no longer his concern. He would remember them, but he would not start paying respects to them or praying for them. That was just his way. It was how they'd raised him. No, he was here for a different reason. The dead may be gone, or they may still be around, but they would no longer have any need of what they were buried with. He had every respect for the people that they were, but the fact remains that he needed these things more than they did.
Although, looking at the people here, something strange came over him. It was weird. He shouldn't feel remorse for what he did to the dead, but these people... they really cared about the resting places of their loved ones. Well if they were buried here, he would have scavenged their corpses long ago. It wasn't so much the problem of stealing from the dead that annoyed him. No, it was more like he was stealing from those left behind, and stealing more than just possessions.
Alder shook his head. Standing outside the graveyard, he instantly cut off this train of thought. Why was this happening now? Damn, he was getting too honest. Furtively, he entered the graveyard, and gazed upon the few graves arrayed there. There were a few that were meticulously kept, and then a few that were... well, in disrepair. Previously, these had always been his targets, the ones that nobody would notice the difference with. Yet now... Alder bent down to a grave at random and gazed at the wilted flowers. Somebody had cared about the body in here. Somebody had bothered to plant these. Whilst they were far from well cared for, somebody had once cared. Still... this was still the mark of one who few cared about. And they were not able to care about themselves. No, taking from them was not really taking from anybody at all.
Then a strange thought struck Youken. What if he died on this very day? What would his grave look like? Would anybody care enough to even plant flowers on his tomb? The answer was no. Nobody would. He was the boy that nobody gave a second glance to.
But then again, that didn't matter. If he died, he would not care about his grave or his possessions. Alder surveyed the graves one last time, but just as an afterthought, he bent down to his chosen target and tore away a little of the moss that surrounded the stone, and propped up the flowers into a little bit more of a respectable position. "The dead are gone" he told himself inwardly "But maybe its worth honoring them for the living."
His parents had been killed already, and their remains dishonored, but maybe he shouldn't treat all dead with the same degree of disrespect, for the sake of the living if for no other. That meant that he'd have to be especially careful not to get caught from now on... after all, he had to make a living somehow, and looting graves left him more prosperous than begging or looting rubbish bins. What the living didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
Alder looked at the other people in the area sadly. He could understand them to a degree, and the rest, well, he'd have to speculate. Slowly he stood up. There was work to be done. He wiped a tear for his parents from his eye and then instantly bit down hard on his little finger nail. The damn thing had grown into a claw again. He shifted it back down to normal size, and only then took his teeth from around it. He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, checking his ears whilst looking just casual. Then he stood up, and left. All the while, he never spoke a word, but a lot of thoughts had passed through that young head, and a lot of memories. Not that it mattered now... He was still just a boy, trying to survive.
A coin began to glint in his left hand, and Alder allowed himself to focus on it. He needed something to focus on right now, or he thought that he might end up sprouting wings in the middle of all of these people. How he'd hide that, he had no idea.
Blinking, Pilu peeked her head over the top of the hole she stood in and looked around the headstones surrounding her. It sounded like...like...sobbing...but that was impossible. After all, the graveyard is usually empty at this time and the sound had seemed to eerily move on the wind. Probably just wind hitting the trees just right, she thought to herself.
In any case she gave up tonight...moving to another grave might increase her chance of being spotted by the wrong people even if this one was not yielding much to her.
She rolled her eyes...people always made a fuss but why should all the shiny be buried with the empty husks here? After all what need have they of shiny?
Genova, or at least her ghost, wandered around the graveyard as she looked at the tombs of familiar people whom she used to talk to when they were alive. Now, they were all but mere names forgotten by Widu and it's citizens. Everything that they've done were forgotten. They were mere names etched on tombstones in a graveyard and never to be remembered.
She wondered where they were. Some say that when one dies, they go to the next life. Well, she had no idea what was in the next life as she was stuck in this current one. Why was she still here? She didn't know. For now, she was merely observing and was happy with the fact at at least her friend Teide can see her.
She continued to walk and inspect the other tombstones in the graveyard and watched for grave robbers. She might actually have fun frightening them.
Hakon spilled the substance on the parameter his master had set then lit it on fire. As he did the graves of the Akavari family disappeared into the astral plane. Then he left because he had not business there.
