I ACTUALLY UPDATED!!!

Anyway…story. :P

*****

"Pa?" Bowman addressed his father in a questioning tone.

Hanno Hath spun around.

"Oh…Bowman…you shouldn't have come after me…I'm f-fine." His voice quavered on the last word.

Bowman sat down wordlessly in front of his mother's grave. He ran his hand along the rounded edge of the cold stone tablet. Moss had grown on it over the course of the past eight years, and it had become so dense that the words engraved on the stone were barely visible.

"Here lies Ira Hath – wife, mother, and prophetess. The leader of the Manth people. The founder of the Homeland. You will live on forever in your people's memories. May you body and soul rest in peace."

Hanno sat down on the damp earth next to Bowman, who placed a hand on his shoulder. "She is at peace, Pa."

Hanno wiped the tears from his face with the coarse fabric of his sleeve. "I know she is, Bowman. Her time had come. But Kestrel? She had her whole life ahead of her."

Their gazes turned in unison to a smaller grave, set of to the left-hand side of the graveyard.

"She was so young." Hanno continued. "To lose Ira was hard enough, but to lose Kestrel as well? It broke my h-heart." His voice cracked, and he shed silent tears yet again.

There were tears in Bowman's eyes too.

"Yours wasn't the only heart that was broken, Pa."

Hanno regained control of his emotions before speaking. He fiddled with a stick lying on the ground, not looking at Bowman.

"I know you miss her. She was your twin."

Bowman glanced over at his father. "She still is my twin, Pa, and she always will be", he said strongly.

"Yes, Bo, she always will be your twin," replied Hanno soothingly, "but it's still hard to believe that she is completely gone from our world."

"Well, I think the emotion of the moment is what's keeping her quiet right now, but she was talking to me on the way down here. She can't be completely gone, because I still talk to her."

Hanno raised his head to look Bowman in the eye. The expression on his face was one of astonishment. He stared silently a Bowman, as if still trying to understand what his son had just revealed to him.

This time it was Bowman who looked away. He toyed with the elaborate embroideries on the wide sleeve of his robe. Since becoming a leader of the Gang, he'd been made to wear clothes suited to his position. He was the Lord of a Million Souls. He was looked up to and respected. His word was law. His authority was unquestioned.

Bowman began to speak.

"When you rule an empire, you have to be strong" he said, sighing. "You have to be responsible, and you have to live up to your duty." He kept his eyes lowered, and continued in a very quiet voice. "It's hard to be a good ruler when you think you're going mad."

He paused, as if waiting for his father to say something, but Hanno remained silent. A bird chirped. Hanno waited for his son to continue. He appeared patient, but was almost bursting with curiosity.

Bowman took a breath, and kept talking, all the while staring at the soft grass beneath him.

"After Kess died, I couldn't believe it. I even began to wish we had simply stayed in Aramanth. At least when we were there, we were together. I just wanted her to be here again. When I started hearing her voice in my head, like old times, I thought I must be going mad with grief. It was scary, thinking I was losing my mind. It made ruling an empire even more difficult."

"But why didn't you tell me?" Hanno blurted out, uncharacteristically interrupting Bowman.

"I couldn't, Pa! I didn't want you all to think I was going crazy! I was so afraid that you'd treat me differently…or that you'd tell me I was truly going mad. I was afraid to hear the truth, and I was ashamed. Anyway, Sisi and I live so far away from all of you now. I didn't feel close enough to you to tell you, and I didn't want to cause you any more problems or pain. Please forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive. In the past you would've shared your fears with Kestrel. Now…well, now, you are more alone. However, she seems to still be with us, in some telepathic way. So you have worked out that you're not going mad?"

"I figured that out a while ago now. When I had calmed down and begun to accept the death, and I was still hearing voices, I chose to think of it as a good thing. At least I can still talk to Kess." He finished with a defensive tone, as if daring his father to disagree with his thoughts on the telepathic communications.

Hanno's response surprised him.

"If you can still communicate with Kestrel, there may be a chance that she is still alive – although she is dead physically. The emotional bond that you two shared has kept her tied to this world."

Hanno wore a strange little smile.

Bowman felt his heart jump into his throat, and wondered at how he dared ask the question that could change everything.

"Does this mean…are you saying…are you thinking that…that Kess could come back?"

"Come back?" Hanno seemed to contemplate the thought. "You are asking if I am saying that Kestrel can be stolen from death itself?"

Bowman held his breath.

"Yes, my son. That is exactly what I mean."