Son of My Heart, Gone From This World|Neo'anar

[Darastrix]

Zira went pale and staggered backward, away from the Beloved Knight before him. If the man said anything else, he didn't hear; the rushing noise in his ears was too loud. His back hit the wall and he slumped against it unsteadily, his hands scraping against the rough stone.

Dead. Shyamal was dead. And at the hand of his own sister. He'd known the young man so briefly, yet he'd come to love him as a son. And now...nothing. All the hopes he'd had for Shyamal were gone, burned to ash.

Zira pushed away from the wall and ran down the hallway, not seeing where he was going, but feeling like he needed to escape. To somehow get away from those terrible words, from the stranger who'd delivered them, and from the pain rending his heart.

He burst into a room unannounced, faintly realising he'd retreated to the palace study, and collapsed into the nearest chair. He buried his face in his hands and began to sob brokenly, his wings wrapping around as though he could shield himself from the world.

[Kender Bard]

Nobody was in the study when Zira got there, and he was able to mourn alone, in peace. After an indeterminate amount of time though, there was a soft touch on his back as a hand rubbed his back.

"There there," came a soft, feminine voice. "Shh..."

[Darastrix]

Zira parted his wings slightly and looked up, though his damp bangs and the tears still filling his eyes obscured his vision almost completely. "S-snow?" he whispered. "Sh-shyamal...he's...." He trembled all over as his sobs threatened to begin anew.

[Kender Bard]

It wasn't Snow that stood near him but a priestess clad in the robes of Thuoth. Or priest. It was difficult to tell though this one seemed to have the hint of a bust, even if her face was rather sharply angled to give it a more neutral appearance.

The priestess also had brown, feathery wings. She reached up and adjusted her spectacles. "Waiting for you? Aye, at the temple. I came to fetch you but you ran off before I could speak with you, Lord Wintersong. I'm not sure what's gotten you in such a heartwrench, though. Would you like to talk about it?" She reached into a pocket and pulled out a handkerchief which she used to try and dry his cheeks gently with.

[Darastrix]

The temple? Had his body been recovered somehow, so he could bury him?

"He's d-dead," Zira choked out. "One of the B-beloved told me. His own sister...." He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and opened them again. "I loved him, so much," he murmured, his voice cracking with grief. "I don't see how my mother could bear the loss of three when one can hurt like this."

[Kender Bard]

The priestess bent over and whispered in Zira's ear, "The only thing about him that is dead, Zira, is that part of his life. Dry your eyes. It wouldn't do for the young boy to see his caretaker in such a state. I could not save him from his fate, but I can do this much, at least, my dear, sweet follower."

[Darastrix]

Zira's eyes went wide, a cautious hope beginning to soothe his heart. My lord, he thought, then abruptly rose and embraced the Force. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered just how much his years with Zack had influenced him.

"Is there nothing you would ask, nothing you would have of me in return?" he whispered, his voice still shaky.

[Kender Bard]

Thuoth thought about that carefully. "Your continued devotion is all I desire," the female-Thuoth replied as she hugged Zira back gently. "For once, this wasn't about you, though I am pleased to bring you happiness. I felt that, after all the tampering we Forces have done with him, it was unfair to let things lie the way they had. He is not precisely the same as you remember. I have restored to him his childhood, which Worg had stolen from him. Likewise, he is no longer filled with the holy light of Love as he was before. But I don't think you will be displeased in him."

Thuoth smiled and added, "My request, I suppose, is that you care for him the way his birth father never did. He waits for you in my wing in the temple."

[Darastrix]

Zira didn't care so much about for whose benefit it had been done as he did simply that it was. "That, I can hardly help doing," he replied.

I wonder if I should still have a marker placed, for the young man I knew. His eyes wanted to well up at the thought, and he swallowed hard and exhaled slowly to calm himself. It was still a loss, though nowhere near as painful as before.

"Thank you, my lord," Zira murmured. "I'll go to him now."

[Kender Bard]

Thuoth just gave a small nod and stepped aside. In an eyeblink he was gone, to oversee the reunion from on high.

In the Thuothian wing of the temple, a young priestess (definitely female this time) sat on a chair with an open book on her lap, reading aloud. "The first response of a horse in the face of a threat is to flee. They have been known to stand their ground and fight- and you see here there's a lovely sketch of a horse here in the margins-"

Sitting at the woman's feet was a small child of hair so lightly blonde as to almost be white, with hairs of silver here and there hinting at how it would mature over time. He sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, a small and content smile on his face as he listened to the priestess reading to him.

[Darastrix]

Zira stepped quietly into the wing and just watched the scene for a moment. He could see the resemblance between the child before him and Shyamal as he'd known him. He thought, too, that he might have seen this child before. Hadn't there been a faint ghost of him when Schuldig had allowed them to meet? He thought there might have been, but he'd been more focused on the more obvious, older mindform and saying goodbye than anything.

He cleared his throat (as much to dislodge the sudden lump that appeared as to get their attention). "Sorry to interrupt," he said, "but I've come for...for Shyamal."

[Kender Bard]

"Oh," the priestess remarked, glancing up.

Shyamal looked over as well and his eyes shone with a happy light suddenly. He grinned and scrambled to his feet, running over and throwing his arms around Zira in a tight hug. "You came! They said you would. I'm glad, I was lonely...."

The priestess wandered over as well. "Another priest brought him in," she was explaining. "She said his parents had perished and that you were possibly to be his guardian...?" She trailed off, with an embarrassed smile. "I'm not sure whether or not this is a misunderstanding, Lord Wintersong. If it is, we can simply take him and put him in the orphanage."

Shyamal's embrace tightened fearfully at those words.

[Darastrix]

"No," Zira said to the priestess. "There's no mistake."

He bent down and hugged Shyamal tightly before lifting him up into his arms. "I'm going to bring him to live in Widor with me and Zack and Autumn. And they'll love you," he murmured to Shyamal. "Zack, Autumn, my mother, my brother...they'll all love you. And so will I."

So very, very much.