a supernatural(ish?) au inspired by the title lyrics. katesch is nyo!egypt, dalila is kenya, and kyoko is nyo!japan.
TRIGGER WARNING/SPOILERS: this fic contains joint suicide by drowning. stay safe. (my life has been weird lately so i guess this is just where my mind went.) idk if i like this tbh but whatever. i won't get better if i don't keep trying!
It was Katesch who found the empty boat, washed up on the river's shore; fear gripped her heart when she saw it, certain that something terrible had happened. "Dalila!" She called, frantically searching the boat for any signs of its owners. There was nothing.
Dalila came hurrying down to the shore, a worried frown upon her face. She found Katesch sitting in the little boat, weeping. "I fear someone has drowned," she said, and Dalila collapsed down beside her. She did not question her how she knew the boat hadn't just come loose in the night; Katesch wasn't a seer, but she had an art for guessing things.
Katesch leaned against Dalila and wept until she had no more tears, and then they went up to their village and told the leader of what they had found. She was solemn when Katesch told her of her fear, for the entire village knew she had her own kind of magic.
"Thank you for telling me this, young Katesch," she said "Now you must go home and rest. I will organize a search party." But Katesch was determined to come along. "All due respect, leader Kyoko, but I'm the one who found the boat, and I want to search for them." She shared a long look with Dalila, then nodded. "Dalila has a gift for finding things; she's coming too." Kyoko sighed, and she looked proud but sad. "Very well, you may come. But I warn you, there will be no happy ending to this."
In the end, after much arguing, Toris, Feliks, and Alfred went downstream, while Feliciano, Erzsébet, Julchen, Dalila, Katesch, and Kyoko went upstream. They then split, Feliciano, Erzsébet, and Julchen taking the east branch of the river, and Dalila, Katesch, and Kyoko taking the west. Tino, Madeleine, and Berwald stayed behind to watch the children and the elderly.
The farther up the river they rowed, the colder the pit in Katesch's stomach grew, until it was as if a shard of ice had worked itself below her ribs; Dalila, too, looked pale and worn. Katesch took her lover's hand in hers and leaned against her. "Do you feel it too?" She mumbled, barely able to move her lips. Dalila nodded jerkily. "Yes," she said quietly, "We are very close now." Katesch shuddered, and Dalila wrapped her arm around her.
They were not even half a mile further, when Kyoko's oar hit something soft. Kyoko dropped the oar and made to stand up, but Katesch stopped her.
"Let me go down there. I'm a good swimmer, and it only seems right that I be the one to find them."
She stripped down to her underclothes, and before she could overthink it and panic, she jumped into the water. It was icy cold, and it seeped its way into her bones. For a moment she was unable to move, it was so cold. The further she sank the icier and darker it got; there was a high-pitched, buzzing scream in her ears.
She nearly drowned, but something, or maybe someone, saved her. A soft, sweet voice, calling out to her to fight back. And she did, she fought wildly, striking back at the water. She burst to the surface, gasping for air, before diving back under. This time, she did not sink, but swam straight to the bottom. She almost wished that she had never told anyone of the empty little boat when she saw what was there.
Two young women were lying at the bottom of the river. Their hands were clasped and tied together, and they looked so peaceful, as if they were only sleeping. Katesch could almost believe they were river spirits, if not for the fact that they were weighed down by rocks.
She did not disturb them until she felt her throat burn, and spots danced before her eyes. Then, and only then, she rid them of their stones and took them both in her arms, and kicked off the bottom of the river, struggling to the top. When she finally surfaced she raised them above her head, and pushed them towards Dalila and Kyoko, who hauled them aboard. Dalila was weeping, and as she struggled to climb into their boat, Katesch realized that she was too.
They climbed into each others arms, and wept the whole way home. Kyoko sung a quiet song of mourning, of grief and love and yearning for better places.
When they reached their village they were met with solemn faces. The other groups were already back. "I heard a voice," Said Julchen, a strange look in her eyes. "I heard a voice telling me to turn back. So we did." Katesch remembered the voice that had saved her in the river and nodded silently. She could not speak.
They took the girls into a shack a little ways away from the village after cleaning them and dressing them in new clothes; they left their hands clasped. The next day Feliciano spent the day painting several portraits of them. He gave one to Toris to take up the river to find the families of the two lovers; Feliks went with him, refusing to let him be the bearer of such terrible news alone. Feliciano then hung the remaining one in the townhouse in memoriam.
Two weeks later Toris and Feliks returned with a man and woman named Vash and Iryna. They wept when they saw the two women, hand in hand. "Erika was a good girl, a sweet girl." Vash said to Katesch and Dalila. "Too good and kind, too trusting." Iryna nodded. She stood in silence for many long minutes. "There is no easy way to describe Natalya," She finally said, "But I do believe she truly loved Erika." Vash scoffed. "Love or not, she brought her to her death," He said, quite cruelly in Katesch's opinion. He did not seem to care or understand that Iryna was grieving too. But perhaps he was too blinded by love for his sister to see it. "Shut up!" Iryna suddenly cried. "Don't you realize it was this sort of thing that drove them to their deaths?" Vash jerked back, a look of shock and then of sorrow passing over his face. "You are right," he said quietly. "I am sorry."
Katesch observed them for a while. "I do believe they loved each other," she said, "And I am usually right." Beside her, Dalila nodded. "It's her gift," she said quietly, taking Katesch's hand in hers. "If you don't mind," she continued, "What happened that would drive them to do such a thing?" There was a long stretch of a stifling silence, heavy with grief. "It was my fault," Vash said finally. "I... was harsh on them. I didn't think Natalya was good enough for Erika." It was then he began to weep. "I just wanted what was best for her, and in the end I killed her." The three women looked on in sympathy. There was nothing to say. No amount of well-meaning lies could change the truth. Finally, Iryna stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. "We will bear this burden together," she said. "I too am at fault. I did not try hard enough to reach out to my sister. If I had, she might still be here. Now I'll never know."
Katesch and Dalila crept away, leaving the two to grieve in peace.
Katesch kissed Dalila once the shack faded from view. "We are lucky," she said softly, "That our friends and family were so supportive." Dalila nodded, a sad look in her eyes.
On the wind they heard a voice, soft and sweet, singing the mourning song Kyoko had sung; Katesch turned in the direction of the shack. "Good luck on your next journey," she said softly, and the singing grew louder, as if a chorus of angels was standing directly in front of her. "Good luck."
Sorrow comes upon me like winter
It creeps into my bones
I wish for greener valleys
Places I once called home
The sun has set upon me
And I am sinking like a stone
A river storms past me
Ripping away all I hold dear
And I wish for greener valleys
For places I once called home
Sorrow comes upon me
Sorrow comes upon me
I have no more words, I am hollowed out
Grief fills me up, and I am overflowing
I wish for greener valleys
A place I would call home
I wish for greener valleys
I wish for greener valleys
Where sorrow can reach me no more
idk if you can tell but i haven't written poetry in a long ass time lol. oh well. practice makes perfect.