It was a dream, but not a good kind. Not the kind where you wake, trying desperately to remember it. No this was a nightmare, one that I had awoken from but hadn't escaped. I never slept that night. Mayra told me she was staying by my side following Sarvin's orders.
Selene's funeral was the next day. So fast there was no time for me to say goodbye. I wanted to see her one last time and take in her face once more before it would perish, and I would fight every day to not forget, but I didn't get to.
The pyre was small, covering the entirety of her wooden coffin. It was only the Tartal household, the maids, butlers, and kitchen staff, standing in the mansion's courtyard. I was on Sarvin's left with Mayra on the right.
I don't remember who lit the fire, who cast the final goodbye, but I remembered the pain. The heart-wrenching pain as I watched her grave lit up. Her ashes danced into the wind above. I swallowed my sobs.
They chose not to bury her, not to honour her with the family crest. Like she was just a commoner, she got the commoner's funeral. A fire to carry her ashes to the gods. Lords and ladies would be buried in a crypt, hoping that the gods would grant immortality to their bones so that when the immortal beings once again walked the earth, they could be resurrected to live alongside them.
My knuckles had turned white from my anger. Selene deserved more honour than this. She was more than this.
My eyes burned from staring into the flames too long, focusing on the small coffin engulfed in flames. It burned higher and higher and my rage went with it.
It felt sudden, like the pain of grief had overshadowed it but now, with her gone, it roared free from its cage. He had to pay. Whoever had done this to her, silenced her final cry, had to pay.
They didn't see me slip away, with their eyes glued on the pyre I was invisible as I backed out. Aleron's guards had been told to stay outside and it wasn't hard to slip by them.
Mayra had ensured me it wasn't Xander, that it couldn't have been. My mind had immediately thought of him as the hooded assassin. Had he been so angry with me that he had wanted to kill me but got the wrong girl? I sprinted down the pavement, the streets were so empty.
The sombre weather did nothing for the scenery. It had rained and now the fog rolled in. Nobody noticed me as I slipped towards the gate, wearing men's clothes covered in a hooded cloak. The gate where the city walls met, where the bound hands reached for the gods, was in front of me.
Xander was in a bar in the nearest farming town just outside the capital walls. Mayra had stalked him there only to make sure he didn't return and do anything stupid. That's how she knew he wasn't the assassin.
The air smelled fresher as I stepped outside, the mud sticking onto my boots. I pulled on my hood and walked forward. It was mere minutes before I was there, surrounded by wooden cabins on each side of a dirt road.
The carriages were resting for the day and the horses peaked out from the stalls. Subtle lights lit the windows and a child's cry carried in the wind. The bar was one of the first houses. A tiny stairwell led to the main door where a sign hung above. The crooked teeth.
I gritted my teeth and reached for the door. It swung open and I jumped aside as two men, one carrying another, stumbled out. They staggered down the stairs, one losing his grip on the other who fell face-first into the mud. His friend chuckled loudly.
I didn't even see her before she spoke. "You take him home safely now."
Her eyes were on them before they wandered to me, and her hand slid onto her hip.
YOU ARE READING
My Darkening Ember
Adventure"This bounty is mine, Xander," He said. It was the first time I ever heard his name. Xander smirked, "Kill me first, then take her." He proposed arrogantly, a silver knife resting confidently in his hand. The man only nodded once as his hand slithe...
