Future Imperfect

Paying Respects

I'm not sure how this chapter turned out, but I wanted to do something with Ersa's funeral and it only made sense to me that Avad would get himself there no matter what. I hope the actual funeral stuff turned out well too because building religious beliefs for people isn't exactly something I do every day. Anyways I was listening to There's a Place by the All American Rejects while writing this and I hope you like it.

He could feel the eyes of everyone he passed on him as he made his way through the village of Pitch Cliff. He was used to eyes on him, being a king didn't offer much of a modicum of anonymity on a good day and today was most certainly as far away from a good day as he could remember since overthrowing his father. The Oseram still held grudges over the horrors his father inflicted upon them, rightly so, and that only made the gazes that much harder to ignore. His entire Vanguard was stationed at various points throughout the village, but Erend was the only one that remained by his side. It was important to maintain an unintimidating presence, but the lack of direct security only made him that much more vulnerable.

It was just as well that he didn't have an entire squad of soldiers with him though, this was a personal matter and it wouldn't do anyone any good for the soldiers to see their king breaking down with emotion. Erend was leading him up a set of stairs in the direction of the building that they were holding Ersa's body in. His advisors had wanted him to make this visit more official, have a meeting with Oseram leadership to try and continue the smoothing over process, but he had refused. He wasn't here as Sun King and he wasn't here to solve diplomatic problems. He was here as Avad and he was here for her. She didn't deserve anything less.

"I'll keep guard by the door," Erend said. "You go in and do what you need to do."

He could only offer the other man a nod as he went inside the small building. He wasn't sure if Erend ever guessed the true nature of his relationship with his sister, but the other man didn't pry and understood that he needed to do something anyways when he had told him that he wanted to be there when she got her sendoff. Erend was a lot smarter than he gave himself credit for and a worthy replacement of his sister as the head of the Vanguard. It was good to still have people around him that saw him as more than just the Sun King.

He made his way over to the stone surface where Ersa's body was laying. He wasn't familiar with Oseram rituals in dealing with their dead, but Erend had made certain that she got a proper Oseram sendoff. As he made his way closer he could see the various scars across her face that hadn't been there the last time he'd seen her and felt a flash of anger at Dervahl for all that he'd done to her. That man was a crazy as his father had been and whatever the punishment the Oseram saw fit to place on him would undoubtedly be what he deserved. Maybe after they dealt with him they could finally put the Red Raids and all the horrors associated with them behind them and stop the mindless killing. If previous experience told him anything though it would never be that easy.

"Hey," he said as he sat down with his back against the stone. "It's been a while."

"I miss you," he continued. "I met someone who reminded me of you while we were trying to figure out what happened to you."

"You'd like her," he continued. "Called me out for not thinking clearly when I was so confused that I started seeing her as you."

"She's not you though, no one else will ever be," he said moving to stand up. "It's something that took me a long time to figure out, but I hope you realized how special you were to me."

"I wish we could have had more time together to realize all that we were together," he finished moving to kiss her hand. "Return to the Sun my love."

With that he exited the building and found Erend standing awkwardly straight outside of the door. He didn't much care if the other man heard everything. His entire relationship with Ersa had had to be kept a secret because of how it might look to nobles back in Meridian. He was tired of having to be what other people expected him to be, if he loved an Oseram woman then he loved an Oseram woman and there was nothing they could do to change that. If only she could have lived, they could have had a son of mixed blood to sit on the throne and things would have really come full circle. No, she was just one more thing that his father had ruined for him.

Final preparations were made with Ersa's body and Avad decided that he was going to stay around to see her sendoff through, no matter what his advisors would inevitably say when he returned to Meridian. She deserved his full attention for as long as he could give it. A group of Oseram including Erend and several other members of his Vanguard brought down the stone tablet which apparently could be picked up with her body still on display lying on top of it to some kind of small pit of fire. Avad stood stoically as he watched Erend move around to the front of the pit and clear his throat.

"My sister was special," he began. "A lot of you who knew her probably already knew that."

"She helped bring down the Mad Sun King and in the process saved us from further slaughter at his hands," he continued. "She saw more than just tribe versus tribe in an endless circle of slaughter."

"No, she saw a future, a future where we lived side by side with the Carja and the other tribes in peace," he continued. "It was a future that she died for, but it's not a future that has to die with her."

"Sun King Avad is here," Avad immediately felt all eyes on him. "And he believes in that same future that Ersa did."

"He's giving us the chance to deal with her murderer ourselves as a show of solidarity," the eyes shifted away. "And we should take his generosity as a sign of things to come."

"The Red Raids may be over, but we still have work to do and we owe it to Ersa's memory to do what we can to make the peace she fought and died for a lasting one," he finished.

An older man came out of the crowd after a few moments of cheering and moved to the space where Erend had just been.

"As we return this daughter of metal back to the fire from which she came may we remember that we will all return to that same fire one day," the man said. "It is in death that we finally become one with the metals we spend our lives working."

With that the group of men tipped the stone slab over and Ersa's body rolled into the pit. Avad felt a strange sense of solidarity with the Oseram as they broke into a mournful but peaceful song. Her body was being returned to fire and fire was a gift from the Sun, an extension of its power. Maybe their peoples weren't so different after all. There were still things to work out, challenges to come, but now singing along to a song he didn't even know he felt closer to the Oseram than he ever had before. Ersa's final gift to him and the world perhaps.

I have an idea for a similar chapter centering around Aloy, but we'll see what ends up coming to me next.