ghosts that we knew.
01-05-2016, 12:00 PM
And broken glass, saw the blood run from my veins
But you saw no fault, no cracks in my heart
Arian was gone. Dead, as she had been for months now. Epiphron had seen her daughter's death with her own eyes - just as she had seen Syrinx's. Maybe if I had tried to stop her, she'd initially thought, but she knew as well as anyone that Arian had been ready to die. Trying to stop her would have only worsened the pain. Maybe if I had tried to kill him myself, came her next train of thought, but she knew that would've been just as fruitless, and she would've likely gotten herself killed in the process. She'd been able to ignore it for awhile. Leo quickly announced that he and Svetlana were to be married, that they were having children - it'd been a welcome and grateful distraction from reality. Her son was busy enough with running Fiori, and she found herself busying herself as well, though with far more menial tasks. Scouting their borders. Hunting as best as she could through the winter, to help support the pack. But now that spring was here, and prey was growing more fruitful, and Fiori was at peace, she found herself thinking of Arian again. There was no avoiding it now. She was awoken, from the midst of sleep, by a terrible nightmare - her daughter screaming, covered in blood, being torn from limb to limb. She awoke, deeply startled and unnerved, and found herself slipping from the familiar lands of her home and toward the ocean. It was a gorgeous spring night. The chill still hung heavy in the air, but it was no longer so bitter as to be painful. It was pleasant, and she shuddered as she slipped from her warm den into the night. The night sky was clear and the stars shone overhead brightly, making navigation easy tonight. Her destination was to the ocean, and she was familiar with this part of the continent, making the journey an easy one. The cliffside was dangerous, but she felt no fear as she tread through the field of newly budding flowers and vegetation. The land had a gentle incline, leaning toward the sky, though she knew the drop-off to the ocean was unpredictable and quite dangerous. It was only when she found a comfortable spot, among the limbs of a small fallen tree and young flowers, that she suddenly felt the weight of her loss. Grief hit her suddenly, like the ocean waves might collide with the shore, and she suddenly and irrevocably felt so much older than she ever had. Epiphron had not expected to come here to cry - she only wanted to rest and watch the stars, to be alone and to dwell on her own thoughts - but suddenly she found herself sobbing. All the pain she had felt, for years, suddenly washed over her. Her father and Syrinx and now Amalia. Her loss of Maverick. Her sister, her children, though their fates were largely unknown. The tears had begun, and for the first time in her life she had no shame - she sat and she cried for all she had lost and all she would never get back. |
And you knelt beside, my hope torn apart
But the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view
And we'll live a long life
