ZEN - Part Two [COMPLETED] [#WATTYS2017]

Epilogue - Part One - Final Good-Byes

Epilogue - Part One - Final Good-Byes

"Ready?"

"Sure."

"Yup. Let's go."

"All set, sweetie."

"We're good."

Zen offers a nod to the other travellers, then slips her magical monacle into place in front of her right eye. In moments they're transported from the massive Kuro and Shiro in Galtaire to a perpetually-sodden area in the south-west corner of the country, and despite the fact that it was considerably warmer, a brief, cold chill races through her body.

"Ah, right. Forgot it never stops raining, here." Gerald sends a momentary, deathly glare up towards the Heavens, then accesses his storage-pouch and withdraws a wide-brimmed, though still tasteful hat that went well with his funeral-attire of black three-piece suit and highly-polished leather shoes.

"You alright, Mizuki?"

The small Scout gives an absent nod to her wife's question, then starts to lead her troop through the open gates of Everet's sprawling cemetary. Unlike her brother, though, and the others who use a low-powered wind spell to shield themselves from the downpour, she prefers to allow the warm rains to pelt her form, in the hopes that the water would wash away the sense of guilt and loss she'd been living with for over five years.

Following the crushed-stone path, Zen travels on a winding side-route that takes them under a pair of large weeping willows, over five well-manicured hilltops, and finally moves off the circuitous avenue upon reaching the furthest corner of the quiet park.

"Look. I'm dead."

"Reminds me. You owe me fifty silvers for the head-stone." The short Cat-woman shuffles to a halt at the mid-point of five white marble grave-markers, which she'd had installed to commemorate the lives of everyone she'd believed to have been killed. Tobar, Opie, Maggie, Carson, and Xander.

"Why'd you stick me next to the crazy-woman, though?"

"Figured she'd keep you on yer toes."

"Hilarious. Fecking Cat."

Zen glances to her flank, and finds the younger married-couple moving forward to the grave-markers. Confused as she was, though, she quickly realizes that they were simply paying their own respects, as the cute puppy takes out a lovely wreath made of evergreen boughs and colourful ribbons to pass over to her wife.

Jessie finishes placing each of the offerings in front of the head-stones, and shuffles back over alongside of her mate to gently grasp Carson's hand, then Gerald's, and finally Zen's before withdrawing a little off to the side.

The Labrador-kin is the next to move away, just a few minutes later, followed shortly after by the one-eyed human, leaving just the sodden Cat-woman and her mate in front of the memorials.

Once Zen completes an internal monologue for her former secondary, mage, and healer, she then takes a few paces forward and slowly sinks down into a crouch. With a soft cloth taken from her pouch, she gently wipes a layer of dirt and grime from the front of her deceased lover's marker, then tucks the kerchief away with a heavy sigh.

"Maggie... it's done with. I finally tracked the fecker down an' extracted my pound of flesh. Obviously, it wasn't my stupid brother, like I first thought... you knew that, though. Knew that Carson was alive, too, I bet..."