The War (All Chapters + Synopsis)

Chapter 27 - Lues

I'm in the hall of records, scouring through stacks and stacks of book on law, predicate, and mounds of other dull texts. My quill is dragging across the parchment in front of me, a royal decree, one that will reinstate my sister as a princess. It won't save her life, but it might just make her more willing to fight for it. Amalia drops another stack of books on the table, and I'm startled by the noise.

"Lues, did you feel that?" She asks, looking around the room.

"What do you...," then I feel it, the hush of air. The world seems to tremble, as if letting out a breath of air that it had been holding in for a long time. "What just... no!"

My mind comes to the conclusion and I tear through the hallways, running as fast as I can. I call to a random servant to get a medic into my sister's room. Amalia is close on my heels, and Katlyn, talking to Lauria, catches my wild expression and freezes. She follows after me and Amalia. When we arrive at the royal wing, the guards don't even bother stopping me, the wind is blowing my hair out of the way.

I throw open the doors and find that a very fearful looking Genna is pounding on my sister's door with no response. He has tears in his eyes as I tell him to step aside. The medic arrives as I open the door with the aid of my magic.

Her room is pristine, clean as ever. The bed is made, not a speck of dust out of order. The only thing out of the ordinary, is the arm chair on the balcony. I see the blood first.

Her pale hand is draping limply from the arm of the chair, the arm looking as though it was recently clawed apart.

I face the sky as I stand before my sister. Her purple eyes are open, but glazed and unseeing. Her pale skin is even paler than it was before. I fall to the floor, to my knees. The medic puts his two fingers to her neck, feeling desperately for a pulse, but I don't need him to tell me that it's not there, that my older sister is gone.

Katlyn starts sobbing, and Genna holds her as he does the same but more quietly. I don't feel anything, just the numbness I felt when they told me my father was gone. There's blood dribbling from her closed mouth. I wipe it away with a gloved hand and close her eyes. Dried tear trails cover her cheeks. She was crying in the end, she was scared and I wasn't here for her. I try to hug her, but her head falls onto my shoulder.

That's when I start crying, when there's no going back. She's dead and I never even got to say goodbye. Her head rolls with every movement and Amalia has to pull me away so that the medic can get her on a gurney, so that they can take her down to the mortuary for preparation. I cry and Amalia holds me, tears in her eyes as well. I don't know how long we sit there saying nothing, but eventually Amalia pulls me to my feet.

"I'll stay as long as you need," Amalia whispers, kissing me gently on the cheek.

That peck is what snaps me to reality. The rest of the royal family is standing teary-eyed in the doorway to Ilena's room. I close my eyes, trying to regain composure before I speak.

"The funeral, tonight, in the Temple of Fos," I say at last to a servant waiting patiently by the door for my instructions. "Tell the priestess to prepare the royal rites."

"Royal rites your Majesty?" The servant asks confused.

"Yes, my sister was a princess of the kingdom, I was signing the official proclamation while she was here, dying all by herself," there's nothing I can do to hold back the flood of tears, she was all I had left and now she's gone.

"Go, tell the high priestess," Aunt Avery suggests to the servant who bows and scurries from the room. "Amalia, Katlyn, would you mind leaving the room for a moment, this is family business."

Katlyn and Amalia leave the room, both of their eyes lingering on me with pity. I stare at the pool of blood by the chair, trying not to imagine the pain Ilena was in during those final moments. I pray to the gods that she's somewhere better, that there isn't just a void, that there is something after death.

Aunt Avery wraps me in her arms and kisses the top of my head. "I know dear, I know."

Aunt Thea pulls Genna and Lauria into her warm embrace. Our family is back together, but we've just lost another member. Our family has lost so much, and yet we're still here; Thea, Avery, Genna, Lauria, and I, all here together to hold each other when the pain of loss becomes unbearable.

***

The festivities outside stop almost immediately when word gets out of Ilena's death. People flood the capital in the short time between the announcement and the funeral itself. Hayley back in Chionia is too far away, and it would take at least two days for Rhyfelwr or Brein Tyrnon to make it.

The funeral procession includes almost everyone in Moor, and the hundreds of people who could make it from the countryside. Everyone is sad, tears fill almost every eyes, and black flags wave from almost every house. The flags of Feralis are lowered to half-staff, as they should with the death of a General, knight, and a Royal Princess. My other knights have also returned just in time, all of them from my mother's time. I'd planned to name Katlyn soon, but now, seeing how broken my sister's death made her, I'm not so sure.

The Temple of Isropia is filled to the brim, thousands of people are forced to stay outside of the Temple as we all morn the loss together, as a kingdom united. The service passes in a blur of light and tears. Seeing my sister's pale face, her eyes closed and colored in with dark kohl. The priestess places a sword in my sister's hands to defend herself with in the afterlife. A gold circlet is placed on her head, to tell the spirits of the next world that she is a princess, and her sash and brooch are placed in the casket to show the world that she was a warrior and a knight, a hero of the people.

At the end of the long service, her casket is carried on the shoulders of more than a hundred thousand makraz to the ceremonial pyre built in the temple courtyard. Her casket is placed on the stacks of wood and kindling. Everyone gathered around, starting with family, then friends, companions, and then everyone else, adds a symbolic piece of wood to the pyre, as a symbol of how much she meant to us. With a flourish the priestess tosses a burning stick onto the pyre.

"We offer to the gods this righteous spirit. A messenger of the gods, the chosen daughter of Sko, Lady of Darkness. On this darkest eve, on this day the world lost a brave soul, the most noble of warriors. Today we lost Ilena Conclamata, the queen who could have been, a princess of Feralis, a knight, a warrior, a hero, the Angel of Death herself. In this flame we offer our prayers, our love, our care for the young girl who was so abruptly taken from us." The priestess's voice grows louder with every word, booming out over the immense crowd that swells with every moment, just as the flame does.

"To the gods we beg, let this girl, Ilena Conclamata, pass into the next world. Allow her a hero's death, give her a hero's bounty, and let her rest in peace. To Fos, god of the light, we ask for her bright spirit to light the darkness. To Fotia, goddess of the flame, we ask for you to accept our offering to you and let her into the next world. To Gi, goddess of the earth, we ask that you allow her righteous ashes to feed the earth and allow the world to begin anew. To Aeras, god of the air, wind, and sky, we ask for you to spread the tales of her life for all the world to learn. To Nero, god of water, we ask that the fire be put out when the time is right, we ask for you to calm the waters and pour the rain to mourn her loss. To Sko, Lady of Darkness, the goddess who graced the Princess Ilena with her sacred power, we ask that you care for her and treat her as the child of your body. To all the gods and all the world, we ask that you honor her memory, and do not let her fade from your minds, our prayers, our history."

As the ruby flames leap ever higher, I glimpse a puff of smoke that looks like her. I know it's not her ghost, but I pretend that it is, and to this specter of my sister I say my goodbyes. When the wood begins to turn to ash, the god of water, Nero, answers the priestess's call for water with rain. When the flame goes out, my sister is gone, and along with her, a part of the world as I know it.

In the morning when Amalia leaves in the solemn silence of morning, I feel this chapter of my life ending. This part of my life that revolved around the War, around my beloved sister, has closed. When I turn again to my palace, to go inside, to hold court and begin the world anew, I no longer feel the bitter sorrow of the night before. With my brave mask on, and my three surviving cousins at my side, I re-enter the world of politics and games, leaving behind the world of love and empathy.