A/N: 50 sentences
Buried Ways
01. Walking
It pained him to see her limp, but he would never tell her that (would pain her more).
02. Waltz
Yeul didn't like to dance, and he too lingered behind, devoted and by her side.
03. Wishes
He wished there was an end to this curse, to this eternity that decayed in reverse, but then remembered he wasn't too long apart from her.
04. Wonder
In Paddra, Yeul was a wonder (a living gift from Etro) but with him, she was a tragedy waiting to unleash.
05. Worry
She could smile day-in and night-out because he worried (feared) for both of them.
06. Whimsy
Her cycles were like a divine whimsy designed for him—bristling lies of something that couldn't be changed.
07. Waste/Wasteland
"Five hundred years, and then you will leave me," she said, embracing him (preserving their little moments for that-one-day).
08. Whiskey and rum
Her first sip was small and deliberate; amused, Caius watched as she grimaced at the taste.
09. War
One day, all will end and he will be free—"with his Yeul"—from his war-torn, diseased heart.
10. Weddings
Yeul had witnessed thousands of weddings and each time, with dark eyes, she asked him why the brides were smiling.
11. Birthday
He left today because it was her birthday, her deathday.
12. Blessings
She was not a goddess and so, her blessings inevitably came half-cursed.
13. Bliss
Yeul laughed when he brought her the Chocobo chick (cried when she died, holding the bird against her chest).
14. Burning
On the outskirts of Haerii, they stopped to rest and smell the burning of thatched roofs and timber halls.
15. Breathing
Her breathing was light, shortened, and tasted faintly of tart plums.
16. Breaking
And gradual and small, she will break, becoming a vanishing act set on loop.
17. Belief
The people of Paddra took her sermons as god-sent, adamant, and only he knew that believing (faith) was the self-incursion of doom.
18. Balloon
Twice a year, the peddler passed by, and Caius would purchase her balloons, marking down the occasions till zero.
19. Balcony
Happy, she leapt from the ledge and fell—worlds away (had to, you see, it must be).
20. Bane
Yeul never lamented her fate, never protested when the time came (he did instead, shouldering her pain).
21. Quiet
The penultimate Yeul was quiet, an enigma who liked to play sad songs at dawn, and the ultimate one to seal his heart.
22. Quirks
They all had their quirks, and he loved each one—each Yeul—for her flaws.
23. Question
"Why does it hurt?" she never asked.
24. Quarrel
He could count the number of instances they argued on a single hand (and how he was always the first to apologize each time).
25. Quitting
Sometimes, he dreamed of quitting, of disavowing, of abandoning—only to return to her forever again.
26. Jump
Jump, don't be afraid, he'll be there to catch you.
27. Jester
"I want you to forget me completely," she joked, knowing it wasn't funny (an incredible fantasy).
28. Jousting
Caius had been her knight for so long that it took her nearly fifteen years to realize that Noel was the one fighting for her all along.
29. Jewel
She preferred candy to pearls, forests to tapestries, and him to peace.
30. Just
Justice was fallacious, just like his promises that everything will be all right.
31. Smirk
Tracing the edge of his mouth, the slight upturn at the corner, Yeul wondered how he'd react if she kissed him.
32. Sorrow
She always died with a smile, afraid to show him otherwise.
33. Stupidity
Stupidity was falling for her over and over and over (just once more) again and all the while knowing it was destined to fail.
34. Serenade
"Sing for me, please," like you used to do when I was young and we were happy.
35. Sarcasm
Caius was too serious to appreciate sarcasm and so, Yeul agonized endlessly over the merits and demerits of confessing her prank.
36. Sordid
It was not appalling, heinous, it was consequential, it was…he released her stiff hand.
37. Soliloquy
Academia was paradise ablaze, animated by the resurrected hopes of long-gone souls, and here, Caius delivered her eulogy.
38. Sojourn
Afflicted, both, and she on her endless, moribund journey.
39. Share
Noel didn't like to share; neither did Caius.
40. Solitary
Together for millennia, alone for perpetuity.
41. Nowhere
When Paddra collapsed, Yeul ceased being The Seeress and became—like him—a wanderer.
42. Neutral
It was out of respect for her memory that he didn't slay the boy.
43. Nuance
Black at dawn, violet under a noon-cast sun, and silverlit in the twilight (he had the most beautiful hair she'd ever seen).
44. Near
She was close enough for him to touch and distant enough to grieve.
45. Natural
Excruciating was witnessing her funeral, was something that had become natural.
46. Horizon
Oerba slept in the far north, in the white death of glory and memory, and he will make it their new home.
47. Valiant
Yeul trusted him implicitly, even though he begged her not to (knew that one day he will disappear).
48. Virtuous
Virtue was the art of forgiving, of convincing himself that it was all, purely for her sake.
49. Victory
Slaying god was an incomparable exhilaration (so was feeling her beside him, finally free).
50. Defeat
Only to her will he ever surrender.