[IC] Would have been 3 years today.
Three years today. Kae stood quietly on one of the distant islands that remained locked eternally in place, floating high above the Nagrand fields, a well-worn note held loosely in his right hand. The tiny Knight stood there for hours, from just after the warm blush of dawn until well after the sun had set, watching. For movement, for signs of life, perhaps? He knew he would see nothing this far away, though he dared not move closer.
Pushing the haft of his axe toward the tree and pulling his hood up to hide his hair and face, Kae rummaged in the pouch at his hip for his box of matches as he made his way toward the edge of his little oasis in the Nagrand sky. Slowly, he lowered himself to his knees and set the note down in the grass, thumb rubbing over the letters as he read them one more time.
My sweet,
You have brought a balance to our lives we've never known before. Our chase is neverending and yet when I'm with you I find myself at peace - parts of me I'd thought long dead feel alive once more.
It seems sometimes that the trials we've undergone have all been leading up to bringing you into our lives.
Your touch makes my skin sing. Your smile soothes my fear. My soul remains aloft on your ashen wings.
I will love you til the end of days.
- Your Ori
The breath the little Knight drew in shook with emotion he had no idea how to tame as his fingers drifted over the last line, let out in a quiet, "I'm so sorry... I love you, too. Both of you."
Carefully, he placed himself between the wind and the letter as he drew a match and struck it, the small flame placed down to a corner of the parchment until it ignited. A miniature bonfire roared for all of a few moments as the letter was consumed in its flame, all the while Kae remained huddled almost protectively around it, refusing to let even a bit of the ashes fly free. Not yet. Before they were even cool, he gathered them up in a tiny pile between his knees as he reached over to his pack and pulled out a glass cylinder containing a single, freshly picked netherbloom. Canister opened, Kae brought the flower to his lips, expression twisted into one of grief. Tears fell, things he hadn't experienced since his death, but he spoke not a word, only giving a soft breath of frost to freeze and melt almost instantly across the flower's surface.
With the petals damp, Kae lowered the netherbloom into the ash, careful to roll and spread it evenly over the same gift he had presented them every year since that fateful day. Leaving it there, his token sacrifice ash-covered and alone in the grass, Kae stepped back to the tree once again and sank down to rest at its roots. From his bag, he drew his flute to hold in silence for a time before he raised it to his lips.
And over the quiet stillness of the Nagrand night, the soft notes of a familiar lullaby tremble through the air, the lone flute's lament for days long past: a final and gentle goodbye.