Remember (An Ascendance Series Fanfic)

3: The Clearing

We also stopped at Tobias and Roden's orphanages, although neither of them went inside. Neither of them had been as fortunate as me, and their orphanage held no good memories for them at all. It was just another reminder of how well off I had been at Mrs. Turbeldy's. I had sent donations to all the orphanages in Carthya, so I was glad to see that these ones were doing better though.

After those quick stops came the hard part.

We started along the road in good spirits, talking about the better conditions of the town Gelvins specifically. I had helped with a little extra donations there. The entire town was extremely poor, and in some cases, the donations just were helping to cover the holes in between the wood slats of the walls. But everyone was looking a lot better and happier.

And then we arrived. I felt chills as I looked over.

"This is it," Tobias whispered.

The three of us walked forward, entering the small clearing.

It hadn't changed much. I took a step forward, and-

"Talk to us? When do we eat?"

"In the end, only one of you can be chosen."

"Sir, I think I'd like to leave."

"Why don't you go back in there and I'll have Cregan drive you to the nearest town."

"Latamer, stop!"

"You killed him."

"Bury him deep."

"Does anybody else want to leave?"

I blinked, finding tears in my eyes. After all this time, I had never truly forgotten this place, but being back here brought back memories of worse times.

I had only known Latamer for a short time, but his death had remained with me. Conner had just killed him. For no other reason but to show an example to us.

As I looked around, I could visualize the spot where the fire had been, and where Mott had chained me up. I could remember that first conversation with Conner, when he was quizzing us, when he started hinting at his plan. The horror I felt when I realized Conner was planning treason, and was using us. I kept looking, and my breath caught.

Roden was already staring, and I walked forward to him. He turned, sobbing, and embraced me. Tobias joined too, and we all stayed like that for a minute, just remembering all that was lost.

When we pulled apart, we looked at Latamer's grave, a simple mound of dirt that didn't look much different than the rest of the forest clearing.

I walked back to the wagon, and Tobias and Roden helped me grab what was in the under basket of the wagon.

A headstone. We wanted to give Latamer proper respect, because he was not some random orphan that was going to die without anyone remembering him.

Roden had once told me that the worst thing about being an orphan was that no one would remember or miss us when we died. At the time, I said it would be easier because no one would feel pain that I was gone, but I was determined that was not going to be the case with Latamer.

Roden had responded, "If you can't give anyone pain, you can't give them joy either."

The three of us placed the headstone down and stepped away. I gave a sad smile. "There."

We gathered some flowers and placed them on the grave.

"You know, Latamer probably doesn't even remember me that fondly," I said. "One of the few moments I knew him I tried to strangle him."

"Yeah," Roden laughed.

"Wait, how come I've never heard this story?" Tobias asked.

"That's right, it was before Conner picked you up," Roden realized.

"Well, I wanted to run away from Conner," I explained. "So I untied my ropes and made them into a noose, and wrapped it around his neck to make sure Roden didn't stop me from leaving."

"I wasn't ever too nice to him either," Roden sighed. "I knew Latamer better than both of you, but I wish I could go back and get to know him more."

That made us silent. We knew all too well that we couldn't go back in time. So many people have died in our lives, and there wasn't anything that we could do about it.

For the rest of the day, we hung out at the clearing, whether we were reminiscing about our time with Conner or just laughing about how much we used to hate each other.

I wasn't sure exactly what I hoped to accomplish on this trip, or even if there was a goal in the first place. But I knew that it went as well as I hoped. Tobias and Roden were my best friends, and it had been too long since we had been able to just talk with each other.

I knew that, for as long as I lived, I wanted to keep the people in my life as close as possible, whether they had already passed or if they were going to be with me until we were old.

I was going to remember.