Elegy of the Leaves

XIII | The Edge of Darkness

There is a peace that exists within twilight. It rests in the burning fire that floats between day and night. Most people feel a sense of melancholy from this time as it signifies the death of light and the advance of the ever-encroaching darkness. However, for Evan it was, on any other day, a sense of calm that filled him when staring into that burning horizon. But on any other day, Evan did not have to send dear friends into the sky.

Firstwing Riza Larishone. She was a year Evan's senior. He remembered her from the Academy. She came from one of the smaller isles upon which was mostly farming communities. She was a good officer and had been Evan's rival in swordplay for the short time their training cycles had overlapped. She'd beaten him in the competition the academy held annually, and Evan had looked forward to asking her to a rematch when he could while they served together.

However, staring at the horizon was all he could do now. The bloody burlap that had covered her broken body was replaced with clean linen. Still, it stained itself the crimson of her blood, and Evan tried to keep his focus from it.

Vausse droned on about her and the loss of all the others whose bodies remained on the ship after the battle. They all laid side by side on the ship's edge at the stern.

Yes, stare was all Evan could do. It was all he could do to distract himself from the weight of the rifle in his hand as he stood straight. It was all he could do to keep the tears that invaded his vision from spilling over. It was all he could do to push the guilt of him being glad it was her and not him lying there from his mind.

"Ready arms!" Claire commanded.

Evan pulled the rifle across his chest. His right hand on the handle and left on the barrel.

"And so it is with great sorrow we commit thee to the sky--" Vausse said.

"Aim!"

He snapped the butt of the rifle into the pocket of his right shoulder and rested his cheek on the top of the wood stock. The muzzle pointed into the sky over the fallen.

"May the sky guide you!" Vausse shouted and helped two other Leaves push the bodies over the edge through the rails. Firstwing Larishone's corpse fell and was ignited into a burning glory by the ship's engines.

"Fire!"

He pulled back on trigger, feeling it click, then hearing the moment the hammer dropped and ignited the powder in the bullet casing. Seven gunshots rang out like one into the growing darkness.

"Aim!"

Evan pulled the bolt back and slapped another round in the barrel then closed the bolt.

"Fire!"

Seven more shots rang out.

"Aim!"

Evan repeated reloading his rifle.

"Fire!"

A final volley rang out into the darkness and silence of the setting sun. Black smoke drifted from the muzzle of his rifle.

"Port arms!"

Evan returned the rifle to his side with crisp movements in uniform with the other six Leaves.

"May the sky guide you!" he and the rest of the crew of The Valkyrie shouted.

Tahlia stood, her head bowed, and hands folded in front of her face next to Vausse uttering a prayer to her goddess for the fallen. Evan couldn't help but watch as the empty dent in her wrists where a jewel grew another. He wondered if Riza's sacrifice had been considered noble enough to become one of Tahlia's jewels. Then he felt sorrow tear through his chest for even hoping that she would become one, for it meant if her jewel was to be used, she'd cease to have existed altogether.