Bastien
I will not say: do not weep;
for not all tears are an evil.
Eventually they reached their destination. To anyone else it might look like nothing: a tree by a stone wall in a field. To Bastien though, it was everything. Here he had gone with Rexanna on their first date, had proposed to her under it's branches, which were now dry and withered by the Deepfrost weather. Gently, he placed her down on the ground to begin wordlessly lifting the wood out of the wagon and building up a platform.
He had never made a pyre before, but he knew how they worked well enough to get a start; hopefully everyone else would follow suit to help him build up the mass, until they had something high enough to be a respectable final resting place for a Queen; when this was accomplished he lifted her body again and placed her down on the pyre, letting the blanket around her fall beneath her body as a cushion.
Bastien stood there for a length of time that could have been hours or minutes, holding her hand and staring at her face, stroking her hair; this would be the last time he would see her at least for a very long time, the last time he would be able to reach out and have her right there, even if her soul had long moved on. "I love you." He whispered countless times, wanting to be sure she had heard.
Then he took some steps back and nodded, indicating for everyone else to say their goodbyes: then they wold build up the rest of the pyre and Deimos would light the flames.
He had never made a pyre before, but he knew how they worked well enough to get a start; hopefully everyone else would follow suit to help him build up the mass, until they had something high enough to be a respectable final resting place for a Queen; when this was accomplished he lifted her body again and placed her down on the pyre, letting the blanket around her fall beneath her body as a cushion.
Bastien stood there for a length of time that could have been hours or minutes, holding her hand and staring at her face, stroking her hair; this would be the last time he would see her at least for a very long time, the last time he would be able to reach out and have her right there, even if her soul had long moved on. "I love you." He whispered countless times, wanting to be sure she had heard.
Then he took some steps back and nodded, indicating for everyone else to say their goodbyes: then they wold build up the rest of the pyre and Deimos would light the flames.
