She's a little surprised at the hand on her back, put it's gentle, not angry, not forceful. She looked up and to the side, eyes shining with tears she was barely holding back.
His nod was powerful, his chant, his hand there, steady and present. They aren't in private but she feels safe, wrapped in his chant.
She doesn't make a conscious decision to let down the final barrier, it just happens. Washed away by the chant and his present, by the candle light and the distant sound of others remembering in their sorrow.
She hadn't gotten to mourn, back then. She hadn't even been able to whisper the prayer of the dying- something she never withheld from her targets. No promise of being reborn in the shadows. Had anyone prayed at all? Had her sister been given to the fire as was right or had she just been dumped somewhere, her soul struggling to escape its earthly bounds?
She had been confined to her room for the day after, left alone with her shock until she had been pulled in front of priestess Elina and told she was leaving, that her whole life was changing, that she was going to the temple.
Then her whole life had changed, not on the whims of the priestess but by the power of the train that had pulled her away from her world and onto that platform.
And she had ran, not thinking, not feeling anything about her sister. She had met people, learned so much, seen so much.
When her sister never would. Sometimes it was easy to pretend, to think of her like the others, like Taiwin, like Junie and Leana, like Priestess Elina and Kant. People in her past, going about their lives now she was gone.
But that was not the truth. Her sister... She would never see her again. No matter if she left this train, no matter what direction life took her. The last time... Her frightened eyes, terrified but defiant as the distance had closed between them that final time.
She shuddered, a gasp as a sob wracked through her, her body tensing as it couldn't decide whether to suppress it or not. Tears spilled down her face, falling into the dirt of the shrine below her face. Pain bloomed in every part of her as she began to cry.
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His nod was powerful, his chant, his hand there, steady and present. They aren't in private but she feels safe, wrapped in his chant.
She doesn't make a conscious decision to let down the final barrier, it just happens. Washed away by the chant and his present, by the candle light and the distant sound of others remembering in their sorrow.
She hadn't gotten to mourn, back then. She hadn't even been able to whisper the prayer of the dying- something she never withheld from her targets. No promise of being reborn in the shadows. Had anyone prayed at all? Had her sister been given to the fire as was right or had she just been dumped somewhere, her soul struggling to escape its earthly bounds?
She had been confined to her room for the day after, left alone with her shock until she had been pulled in front of priestess Elina and told she was leaving, that her whole life was changing, that she was going to the temple.
Then her whole life had changed, not on the whims of the priestess but by the power of the train that had pulled her away from her world and onto that platform.
And she had ran, not thinking, not feeling anything about her sister. She had met people, learned so much, seen so much.
When her sister never would. Sometimes it was easy to pretend, to think of her like the others, like Taiwin, like Junie and Leana, like Priestess Elina and Kant. People in her past, going about their lives now she was gone.
But that was not the truth. Her sister... She would never see her again. No matter if she left this train, no matter what direction life took her. The last time... Her frightened eyes, terrified but defiant as the distance had closed between them that final time.
She shuddered, a gasp as a sob wracked through her, her body tensing as it couldn't decide whether to suppress it or not. Tears spilled down her face, falling into the dirt of the shrine below her face. Pain bloomed in every part of her as she began to cry.