Teach Me How to Say Goodbye

Resin said his name. Artorias' heart swelled when he heard her voice say his name, hopeful that maybe she was beginning to show some clarity, that maybe he would get to have one last conversation with his mother. His mother, not this stranger she had become. That hope was swiftly dashed when she asked if he was one of Iolaire's children. His ears fell to his skull and his heart collapsed in on itself. He hadn't seen the older healer since the pack had moved to Auster, but if Resin's memory was reaching that far back, there was nothing left of him, of his family, of any of their life in her mind. He didn't respond, instead staying silent and swallowing past the knot in his throat while Resin drank to soothe her throat and praised him for his kindness. She joked that she couldn't remember someone she just met, and he simply nodded his head in understanding. "No, I suppose you can't..." he murmured under his breath, trying his damnedest to not allow the heartbreak to seep into his steady voice.

Artorias listened quietly while Resin rambled on about all of her dead children. She listed them off by name, each one meaning nothing to the young Carpathius boy—until he heard the name Oxx. His ears pricked up, eyes alight with recognition. That had been the name his mother had called him when she'd caught him with Briar. So Oxx was one of her deceased children? That was who she had mistaken him for? At least that mystery was solved. She mentioned his sword then, and Artorias glanced over his shoulder at the hilt of his new blade, given to him by Resin herself only a couple days prior, but already she didn't remember him. Her illness was progressing fast—way too fast. She asked if he was here to kill her and he gave her a shocked look. He could never picture having to kill his own mother.

"No, Mo-" He cut his own words off short, flinching as he remembered that she didn't remember she was his mother. "No, Resin. I'm not here to kill you." But by this point Resin had already begun to devolve back into the madness that was deteriorating her mind. "I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to talk to you. I wanted to see you." He got back to his paws while Resin slipped back into her cell, beginning to pace back and forth behind the bars, despite the open door. "I carry the stick to protect wolves, like you. I'm a knight, not an assassin. Can you please... take a deep breath and come talk to me?" Before it's too late... The words passed through his mind, but he didn't dare speak them out loud. She was already spiraling, she didn't need to be freaked out with the revelation of her encroaching death. He wasn't ready to leave her yet though. He didn't want his last conversation with his mother to end this way.

"Artorias" | Corbin