Fader, broder, son.

Lover. Companion. Friend.

"I love you above all others."

"If Godric is dead, nothing in the world can bring back what I've lost."

How many lifetimes had he spent by his maker's side? With eternity before them, the days had blended easily into years, and centuries passed in mere seconds. And now, now Godric was dust, and Eric couldn't feel it. Couldn't feel a damned thing. There was this hole in his chest where he knew the pain should be, but all he could do was let bloody tears seep silently from his eyes. If this was grief, it was unbearable. Humans lost their loved ones often, but their love was like a flash fire. Short and fierce, and only ruins afterwards.

Godric...he'd been the ember that burnt within Eric for near a millennium. How could that love compare to the brevity of human love? How could the grief of this loss compare to that of a human's?

There were short moments when the numbness receded and it was all Eric could do to survive the sharp keening of his heart. If there was any other pain such as this, Eric didn't know of it.

And Sookie, who'd touched his hand for a moment and watched Godric die, she'd been there for Godric when Eric could not be. She, who was the mist after a hurricane, seemed to see right through him. It was all he could do not to take her and force her to withstand the enormity of his misery, beg her to do something, anything to fix it.

He felt caged, trapped within a gilded jail of his own construction. He'd built himself an empire, and could not abandon it, not even when the mere thought of another night parading for his human audience filled his mouth with bile.

Without Godric, eternity seemed like the harshest punishment. Solitary confinement, with no end in sight.