cinders and smoke

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do Time passed differently without Ronin around. It might have been days or years that the hunter was gone. Colour had drained from the world without his counterpart beside him. Once that snippet of poetic dribble might have made Remi smile; Ronin was the star in his sky, light of his life both literally and metaphorical. Now the thought of it only made him feel cold. The only reason he'd turned away Ludo's offer to take him out of this life was because of Ronin, and surely after all the two had been through, being the only reason the alchemist continued to live was far too much of a burden.  Ronin had called him one after all, that day on the beach. They'd promised each other till death do us part, but they'd never said whose death. That thought should have broken Remi in itself. That it didn't was part of the problem as well. Knees shredded raw from the sand, nails broken and bloody from hand-digging in the hard-packed sand, Remi sat askew on the sands staring blankly out to sea. He could have dug the grave with magic, but it didn't feel right. The pain was an echo of something real, though no matter how he tried he couldn't quite grasp it. He couldn't quite grasp anything, anymore.