#also this particular excerpt probably won't feature until at least chapter 10 ish

[aeithalian]

WIP excerpt #1

hey so remember that post i made with the theory about estelle? And the fic I said I was writing? totally unrelated to this (wink wink)

He sniffed, wondering if it would be excused for something other than honest tears in the biting mix of cold wind and smoke. The funeral pyres crackled lowly, and he vaguely wondered how long he'd been standing there, alone, watching the bodies of children crumble to ash.

The unforgiving shape of the charms on the necklace felt dull against his numb fingers. Beads, one for each of her summers. And another charm, one his fingers didn't recognize. Looking down, he saw a glimmer of metal underneath the black coat of soot. Wiping the grime and clinging ash away with his thumb, he saw it for what it was: a tiny sun, intricately crafted from gold, strung along in between her beads, his own name swirling around the center in Greek.

He looked back up, to where he knew her body burned again. He wished it didn't have to be fire.

His eyes burned with smoke, then with fatigue as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, and the only light came from a sliver of the moon and the glowing coals.

He heard someone approach, and it was only in the light of the moon he could see who it was, with that precious mortal child clinging to her hip. Her free hand clasped his, the one that wasn't holding the necklace.

"I pray you never feel this," he said, his voice croaky after hours of disuse.

She didn't say anything; probably, she was praying the same. He wondered who she prayed to.

He tore his eyes away from the embers, and, clearing his throat, turned around and followed her up the hill.

"It's sad," he said, "but I think us gods have much more practice burying our children than raising them."