What remains

At some point she had begun to cry again, but this time they were silent, quiet tears that merely rolled down her cheeks and dropped from her chin into the soggy snow. Glistening, in the light of the fire, as if her grief somehow could be made beautiful. It wasn't the sheep she cried for, or the dog, because in her mind it was her brother that burned on this pyre. Noah, and Lienna, and the children, born and unborn. If Safrin could see them from her starrysky, if Ludo could find them with the light of a lantern... Maea could not smile at Nate, but the cold, pale fingers (stained by blood and soot and tears) that reached for his hand expressed the gratitude she could not speak. "No, I'll be..." What would she be? Alright? Fine? She would be here, but she would also be sad, and lonely, and busy, too tired from too much work and too timid to ask for the things she really wanted and needed. Soon she would stop crying and learn to smile again, even laugh occasionally... She would carry on. But perhaps Nate, who had seen her cling to the body of a dead dog and spill her heart onto the ground, perhaps he alone would know how not okay she would be for a long time. "I'll see you later then." A pause. "Thank you." MAEA Sometimes darkness can show you the light