Omniferous Chapter 1: The Months Afterwards, a misc. anime/manga fanfic

The short version of the answer to 'what is this and why does it exist' is essentially that while Kawaakari CB 2020/2021 finished back in the summer and so did Luciform, they did not finish with me. There were more aspects of the story I wanted to tell, particularly in relation to the epilogues-that is to say, all the stuff that happened after the main story. The four epilogues I put in Luciform just weren't enough. So, I decided to put together a collection of what I've been calling 'bonus epilogues'. The titles of each one are basically just when they occur in relation to Luciform. I hope you will enjoy this collection even a little as much as I've been writing it. Though to be fair, I have been having too much fun but whatever. On with it we go!

Omniferous: to bear everything, consisting of all kinds of things

in another realm, you can tell someone you're thinking of them across oceans & fields without a single postage stamp. their dreams will wash with pink if you miss them, silver if you love them, and the softest gentlest shade of blue if you're sorry, you're so sorry for everything

-by Tiny Fairy Tales ( tinyfairytales on Twitter)

I forget the way I cried
When I heard it call your name
But I hope for laughter that is coming after pain

-From Shattered Haloes, written by Joseph Daniel, performed and produced by Nathan Wagner

Elly came to haunt her the day the final bodies were found.

The sun was setting, and Jenna and the others had already left for the day. Robyn had stayed behind to watch those final bodies be carted away by the professional necromancers and to say her goodbyes to those of the dead who were still lingering on the grounds, waiting for their funerals. Most of them had been given the rituals that kept them safely at the borderline. Of those who hadn't, they soon would once their bodies had been taken to funeral homes, and the families notified. Working closely with the professionals she'd been ordered to assist, she'd helped to make sure that their spirits were stable and that whatever space in the living world their borderlines kept them at, they'd remain that way until they could cross over.

It turned out that being familiar with Kawaakari in the way only a student could be, combined with the fact that she'd encountered so many of them in life in her infirmary work experience role had proved to be helpful in this regard. It had been hard, exhausting work though, and every night when she'd returned to the hotel the Imperial Government had organised she'd wanted to weep in her pillow, except that each time she realised that she'd cried all the tears this situation would demand from her already. Calling Jun on the worst nights helped. Having Jenna and the others around, seeing them on the grounds helping the government and other highers-up understand the trees they had created from death, that had helped too.

But still, she was glad that it was over now.

"Will you be coming, then, to our funerals?" one dead girl asked.

"Or will you be back here?"

"I'll be here occasionally," Robyn said. "To visit my friends-especially Jun, once he arrives, now that his leg's healed enough for him to be able to help. But I'm sure most of you will have crossed over by then. As for your funerals, I cannot promise anything specific, because there are a lot I need to attend."

"Yeah, figured. There's literally hundreds of us here, like it's crazy!"

The boy who had uttered this was quite right-it was crazy. But not just that, hideous and horrible too. Worse that really, it was only just beginning. Only Mona, Negi, Amuri, Hibi, Tricker, Frost and Yoyo had had their funerals. She'd attended Amuri's, Hibi's and Tricker's, but Frost and Yoyo's had both been ordered private by Emperor Taiki, and the rest she'd missed as a result of searching for the other dead.

"But at least it means you'll all get to rest soon-you are doing so well holding on. Go to your family's funeral officiants if you're struggling, alright?" she told them.

"We can come to you as well though, right, Robyn? You're nice with this, just like you were when I came to you with my sniffles."

"Oh yeah, and when I had food poisoning!"

"And when I came with my sprained ankle, and then my cut lip, and then the clouds or whatever you called them…."

As some of the others clamoured with their own memories, Robyn couldn't help but shed a tear as she watched them all. Most stood clustered around her, while others had climbed into nearby trees and others sat or stood in the nearest set of ruins. She had her own memories of so many of them, too, beyond the ones she'd been friends with or on Night Patrol with. Like Yannick, who liked to draw pictures on their tutor room's blackboard whenever he was on cleaning duty. Maeve, a quick-footed but clumsy second year who'd been in her Mixed Melee Combat class. Niamara, a third-year with healing magic she'd talked to from time to time. Shozo, who'd openly despised Asuka's group after they'd been outed but who'd put himself between them and an attack from Professor Nyamai on that final horrible day. Hisaki, who had trouble sleeping but was allergic to both lavender and camomile. So many of them, just so many.

Every single one of them- even those who'd actually died in hospital or on the way there rather than on the grounds-they were all directly connecting with her in order to communicate, they made the air in the spaces they occupied thicker, hazier, and if she let her own gaze relax she'd see the borderline of trees surrounding each of them, with the personal touches that each individual's spirit brought to it.

But after weeks and weeks of searching for bodies and making contact with their spirits to ensure their safety she'd learnt to let the visual aspect fade to the background, to rely on her sense of feeling to help discern whether she'd done right by them. In this moment, this was not all of the dead. Plenty of them had been content to simply haunt places they'd known, or to float around rather than make direct contact with anyone at all. Jae had been one of them, even though she'd looked out particularly for him during all of this. Frost had been another, but that had been a bigger relief, because Robyn didn't know what she would have said if confronted with that girl's spirit. Either way, whether her interactions had been the simple procedures or more extended communications such as this one, juggling multiple borderlines had led her to near collapse, nearly as bad as the night of the Water Nymphs festival. She'd had to learn how to manage it, in order to be able to help them. And she wanted to still be able to help them, especially because it was all she had left, considering she hadn't been able save them in the first place.

"You can, if you need to. But you need to let go of me, now. I need to start my journey home."

"In the meantime we can wander here, or see our families and friends, right?"

"Yes."

Robyn did not remind them of the things she had told them while calming down and anchoring their spirits. She knew that each and every one of them had, in their own different ways, taken on her words. Besides, she'd made sure they were able to see and interact with each other, so that they at least had a little company before they finally went to the Other Side. A chance to say goodbye to those amongst them they'd love, in a way they wouldn't be able to do as they would with the living during the funerals. She just smiled and waited, and watched as they began to fade away, the wind that was already blowing picking up speed a little as the air thinned. She shivered, and then yawned, and when the sun had almost gone and most of the dead who'd stayed to talk with her had left, she turned and began to leave the ruins.

Despite the late hour, she had decided that she'd make the journey home that evening itself, wanting to get back to her grandmother and their little house as soon as possible. Even despite the money that they'd been awarded, her grandmother needed to keep working and hadn't been able to accompany her. Phone calls and emails simply weren't enough, the way they hadn't been enough with Jun. Even if it was a ridiculous hour, she just wanted home. The exhaustion would be worth it, the rest so much better, if she could just get home.

So she attributed the sluggishness she felt as she packed her stuff up in the hotel room and checked out to the tiredness. She attributed the way she kept nodding off to said tiredness, and the odd sparkling and heaviness around her to both that and the sorrows that continued to wrap around her, the mix of emotions that came with the thought of the impending funerals as well as worries about her friends and the wider 'core group'. Even the thickness she felt, she assumed it was just the memory of it, from having been constantly surrounded with the most dead she'd ever seen for weeks on end.

When she got home, however, rather than immediately hug her and offer up whatever treat was causing smells to come from the kitchen, her grandmother stopped in her tracks and frowned at her.

"Grandma?" Robyn asked, putting her suitcase down uncertainly. "What is it?"

"Dearest One," her grandmother said. "Did you not notice that you've had a spirit following you?"

Robyn blinked blearily. But then she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the thickness and the haziness, and the slight suggestion of a line of elm trees just to her side. She turned to it cautiously.

And there, she saw Elly.

…

Despite both her and her grandmother being necromancers, Robyn could safely say this was the first time she'd ever had a dead person sitting at her dining table. Strangely, despite being filmy and insubstantial, with the haziness all around her, Elly looked as if she belonged there. She looked vibrant, clad in the outfit that she had been given by Headmistress Hades, almost healthier than she had been in her final days of life. Her eyes were bright as she took in the kitchen, but despite her gaze still retaining that sceptical, inquiring spark it had had in life, Robyn didn't think that she was judging the worn out chairs, the faded paint on the walls, the clean but cracked tiles. Nonetheless, once she and her grandmother were introduced to each other, Elly didn't immediately explain why she had followed Robyn and instead stared at everything for a good few moments before saying:

"I don't know what's happening, because I've obviously got no desire to go back down there, but I have a feeling that my parents are going to drag their feet on my funeral."

"Julka told me the other day," Robyn said hesitantly. "Her parents think that your parents are going to wait until Crow Moon."

"Well now, that's preposterous," her grandmother said. "That's a full two months away. "

"Yeah, well I know that and you know that and you know that. But it's traditional."

Elly's mouth curled sharp around the word.

"My funeral will probably be all traditional, too. Nothing like me. I mean, it won't matter once I'm gone and all that but…"

Elly sighed, looked around the kitchen again.

"I won't be here all the time. I won't disturb your life and besides, may as well make the most of wandering without impunity even if I can't handle anything."

"You cannot just wander wherever you want. In some ways it's worse than if you were completely unrestful." Robyn's grandmother said. "And you're going to struggle, your spirit in limbo for all this time. If your parents are traditionalists as you say, they should know that."

Elly sneered, but then nodded at Robyn's grandmother in a surprisingly respectful gesture:

"They should. But they're probably freaking out about my 'godless' behaviour. All of this…there's no way they will want to believe that their Goddess Akari was anything less than perfect, that their truths were actually lies. Keep it to Crow Moon, they can let it fly under the radar, not have to do anything special."

"So then…they'll probably be making your funeral private then, too?" Robyn asked.

"Oh, definitely."

Elly seemed to fold into herself then, looking so small in the wooden chair she was now sitting in, even as she seemed to almost go through the back of it. Robyn began to reach out before remembering that she wouldn't be able to touch her, but then Elly shook her head and straightened.

"Anyway, I just thought…Robyn, could I stay with you, some of the times? To talk? It's not like there's anyone else who'd actually be able to see me who I'd actually want to talk to. I'll stay at Kawaakari some of the time, and I'm going to try and watch over Julka, a little…as long as I don't have to see my parents in the process. But until it's time for me to go, I'd rather stay with you."

"My, I didn't realise that the two of you had been friends in life." Robyn's grandmother remarked.

"We're not friends," Elly rolled her eyes. "But you're good people, Robyn. I liked you in life. And this place…it looks like a real home. Even if I can't eat or anything, it'd be fun to be here for a little. I'm entitled to a little fun, aren't I?"

Robyn's grandmother chuckled at that, and then looked at Robyn meaningfully. Robyn sighed, but there wasn't anything to think about, not really. Not despite the heaviness on her shoulders and in her heart.

"Alright, then."

…

Time passed, as did funerals. Jae, Shozo, Xeiv. Reo, Nysa, Niamara. She went back to her local high school, the one she would have attended in the first place if she hadn't been accepted at Kawaakari. Most of the others were waiting until the new academic year to begin school again, but Robyn wanted to get herself used to the school, to immerse herself in some sense of normality. However, it couldn't ever be fully normal, even if Elly didn't come with her from time to time, sitting quietly in a window-seat. Too many of them stared at her wide-eyed, whispering to each other and scuttling away whenever she came close enough to hear the words.

Robyn could bear it, since nobody actually directly picked on her, even if it did hurt to realise that the only reason they didn't was fear. Still, she found herself pettily satisfied when they picked up on some sense of Elly's presence, complaining that whatever corner of the classroom Elly stood in was cold or otherwise assuming a deity of some sort stood there. Occasionally, she'd lean over people's shoulders, making them complain about tingling there as she commented on their school work with acerbic remarks that Robyn had to bite her cheeks to not laugh at. Sometimes, she left to float around Kawaakari, and from the things that Jenna and the others mentioned in texts Robyn knew that Elly followed them. She had to made sure to tell them that that was the case after Milo had become agitated, and Elly had come home hurt that she couldn't breach the barrier between the dead and living to befriend the cat once again. Apart from that, despite so many highly able officials on the grounds, Elly's visits posed no real issues.

The most interesting thing about having Elly around though was despite the fact that it had been Robyn that Elly had followed, it ended up being her grandmother whom Elly seemed to form a bond with. The old woman was cautious, constantly casting spells and protective circles to ensure Elly didn't become destabilised and cause havoc while waiting for her funeral, but the two reportedly spent a lot of time talking about…what, Robyn didn't know, but so often she'd come home from school or from her new part time job or from visiting her friends on Kawaakari's grounds and see them poring over books, or Elly watching while the old woman cooked, pretending to taste the food. At mealtimes, she sat and chatted with them and it felt oddly like having a sibling, though Robyn did not bother to voice this thought aloud-she strongly suspected that Elly would pooh-pooh that as strongly as she did the concept of friends, even though it was clear she sought out and cherished bonds as much as any person.

Indeed, the times that Elly did spend with Robyn were in the manner that she imagined that sisters would spend their time together. Sitting together in her bedroom, Elly sitting on the bed or on her desk, swinging her legs, the two of them chatting. For all her quirks, Robyn found her surprisingly easy to talk to, good company. The way she lit up, the unfiltered enthusiasm in her grin, her relentlessness. Watching her hands move and gesture and push around objects-even though Robyn's desk was now forever a mess from the way Elly's presence caused breezes to push everything around-it was so alive that she almost forgot that Elly was dead. That she was just a spirit haunting her until she could safely leave.

Almost.

…

"I think she came to see you, the other day. She said something about Mist-I'm glad you're getting along with her again. So she probably knows and all, but I'll tell her."

"Tell me what?"

Robyn turned to Elly, who had appeared by her desk, leaning against it (or technically, part through it) and raised an eyebrow. The tone of her voice was clearly meant to try and catch Robyn by surprise, but Elly should have known by now how strongly she could feel the presence of the dead. And even beyond that, all the weeks of having Elly around had made Robyn particularly sensitive to her presence specifically. Elly simply grinned back and Robyn sighed.

"Yeah, she's here. Are you sure you don't want me to pass on a message? No, alright then, I'll see you tomorrow, then? Okay, bye."

Elly's grin had faded somewhat, and the moment Robyn hung up and put her phone down on her bedside table she immediately repeated:

"Tell me what?"

Robyn sat down heavily on her bed. She should have been better at this, at breaking bad news. Especially bad news that the listener already suspected was true. Nonetheless, it took an age for her to be able to arrange the words in her head and convey them:

"Your funeral…it won't be until the last day of Crow Moon. And private, as you suspected, the cheapest funeral possible. But…they're not seeking posthumous charges against Frost for killing you."

Elly blinked rapidly at that.

"What, not even like, compensation money from her family?"

Robyn shook her head, and Elly's face crumpled briefly, though she did not cry. Instead, she put her hand over her chest, over the area she'd been stabbed and took a few heavy breaths. Then, carefully, she sat down on Robyn's rug and ruffled the frayed threads at the edges.

"I must have really shamed them," she muttered as Robyn's rug's edges fluttered under her hands. "That Daddy Dearest would turn down the opportunity for money and a chance to stomp around all outraged."

"I'm sorry, Elly."

"Don't be. I long accepted they didn't love me."

It was one of those moments where Robyn so badly wanted to hug Elly, so she just stood up and told her that she was getting ready for bed and would be back in a moment. She scooped up her pyjamas and dressing gown and went to the bathroom to do just that. When she returned, Elly had stood up and was now gazing out of the window. Now that Robyn kept her lights off, she kept her curtains opened at all time and so cold wintery moonlight streamed through, highlighting Elly's almost-otherworldliness more than usual.

"Say," Elly asked, half-turning from the window. "Did Frost or that other one ever come to you? I don't mean necessarily like this, but the usual way? I feel like Frost would want to gloat or something. I mean, she did still succeed in killing me even if her plans all went kaput. I know I would if I was her. Or maybe not, because I'm not a robotic murderess and never will be, but you know what I mean."

Robyn couldn't help but snort because Elly would definitely have gloated in a situation that was remotely similar, but the amusement was short lived as she remembered the answer to her question:

"Yoyo-sempai came to me in a dream, once. The night before her private funeral."

Elly sucked in an audible breath and turned around properly. Leaning against the window, moonlight streamed right through her as though she were a lantern, but her frown was all too clear. Robyn settled herself in her bed, pulling her blankets up against the chill and thought about that night.

Aeternum. It seemed as if all her visions had taken her to Aeternum, or a version of it that was forever cold and almost empty. Then again, what was she to expect? She couldn't remember the last time she'd had an encounter with the dead from somewhere outside of this, from a person who had been very old or very sick. No, all of her visions had been to deal with lives that had not ended naturally, but that had been cruelly snatched. All lives inextricably linked to Kawaakari Academy.

Yoyo was no different. For all she had done and might have done, she was no different. The way she sat on the tree stump, swinging her legs back and forth and humming to herself, she looked as if she had not been cut to pieces, as if her blood had not turned the snow red long after the pieces of her had been magicked away. Robyn gasped, and Yoyo turned to the sound, eyes widening as she stood up. She stepped forward, holding a hand out, but then she drew it back. She carefully dusted down her black outfit as though it was one of her flouncy skirts and adjusted the ties on her cloak and then faced Robyn. She smiled, and it looked much like her usual one but didn't feel anything like it.

"Yoyo-sempai." Robyn started. "I…"

"Oh, I'm guessing you feel betrayed, right?"

"I…I believed in you. Some of them thought that there was something suspicious about you, but I believed that you couldn't possibly have done anything wrong but what we saw…you were trying to give Goddess Kagami a body back. But you must have known what would have happened."

"Of course I did," Yoyo shrugged loftily. "But this was war, my dear. You know the consequences of war."

If Robyn had had any tears left after all she'd already wept, she would have cried. This couldn't be the Yoyo she had known, it couldn't. Surely the caring, compassionate, competent person she thought she had known was still underneath the bright smile and the sneering gaze. She had to be."

"Lunar-sempai, Amuri-sempai, Mona-sempai, Negi-sempai. Hibi, Tricker." Robyn demanded. "They were just consequences of war?"

Yoyo's smile wavered, and she looked down at the ground. Idly, she played with the end of her curls, spilling out of the bun she had had them tied up in.

"Kagami deserved better than she got, for all these years. Our families have always been devotees of her, vowing to get her vengeance. If it had been a quicker process to line up the plans, or if it had taken longer, then it just would have been others who would have been sacrificed for that."

Robyn tried to protest, but Yoyo lifted her chin stubbornly, eyes sparking as she continued:

"Besides, Frost wanted more, did you know that? She wanted you-she thought at first that like me, you'd be persuaded to join. After all, you know what it's like to skirt on the edges of darkness, to be reviled for what is in your very being. But when it became clear that you were too pure for that, she wanted your flower magic. She wanted Xyewii too, especially once she fell to the coma, since she'd be easier that way. But I said no. After all, she was my patient. Our patient. I don't let anyone touch my patients."

"That doesn't make it any better!" Robyn cried out.

"No, it doesn't," Yoyo said easily. "But I did want to help, still. Say what you like about me, but I took the infirmary seriously. The ones who were in a coma, I did want to help them."

Robyn didn't know how she could possibly know this, given how out of touch her judgement of Yoyo really had been, but this had the ring of truth. Somehow, that was worse.

"And yet you still went along with Frost?"

"It was fate, dearest. Our fate that we would be the ones to give Kagami her vengeance."

"But that wasn't even what she wanted! Neither of you, or whoever was helping you, none of you listened to her! You weren't acting according to her wishes at all. So everything you did, the war you were waging…the number of lives you've been responsible for stealing, Yoyo-sempai. It was needless, all of it. In the end all you did was just cause more tragedy. Don't you feel any regret for that at all?"

The wind made the leaves rustle, and Robyn shivered. Yoyo just smiled at her, but she didn't say anything for a long moment. Robyn sighed, rubbing her face.

"You weren't there, were you?" Robyn asked. "Well, here, rather. That night."

"No, I was in the infirmary. I told you, I took my work there seriously. I would not abandon them. But mobile phones, they are an amazing invention-easy enough for me to be there without being there, with such things. Besides, despite my blood specialism, I've never been fond of getting my hands dirty in such matters. Better to seem innocent right up until the end, given that dirt would be inescapable eventually. Dirt, fate, war. They're all inescapable, in the end."

Robyn nodded slowly at this. She supposed that in a way it was, because even she hadn't been able to escape heartache in the end. Yoyo was looking at her in that way she often had, bird-like and curious before she suddenly burst into a peal of giggles:

"You asked me if I have any regret. Do you want to know the answer to that?"

Robyn waited. Yoyo's giggles faded away, leaving a stone-cold demeanour, though with enough emotion tugging at the edges of her features that she hadn't turned as expressionless as Frost could get. The wind kept blowing, but Robyn knew that they still had time, that Yoyo could use her abilities to hold out for longer than another spirit could.

She just wondered how long she would be able to wait.

Robyn sighed as she finished the telling. Elly moved away from the window and came to sit on the edge of the bed. From the way she scrutinised Robyn, it was clear she knew that there was more that she wasn't telling but unusually, she didn't question it. Instead, she remarked:

"So, that clears up the whole song thing, but that doesn't really tell us much, does it? Also, what on earth did she mean that she doesn't like getting her hands dirty? Tell me how that makes sense for someone who was working in an infirmary!"

Elly pulled a face at this, and then concluded:

"Then again, she'd totally bought into the same Kagami-vengeance crap."

"It was a family thing, apparently. She and Frost are both in the same family lines of people who fought as heretics in the Great War, and clearly that was a particular legacy of theirs." Robyn pointed out. "Remember the stuff you read last time, at the ruins?"

The stream of swearing that Elly let out was particularly vehement, but then she flopped back on the bed, curling up. Robyn moved towards her but Elly waved her off, taking a few moments before sitting up again. She held her hand over her chest, in some obvious pain, but rather than comment on this she simply asked:

"Whose funeral is it that you're going to tomorrow?"

"Will's."

Elly sighed at that.

"I can't wait for mine."

"I know."

"Oh well," Elly said hoarsely. "Whatever. I guess you're gonna sleep now, so goodnight. I'm sticking around, if you don't mind. Just right here."

Again, that urge to reach out and hug her. Robyn sighed and gave a gentle smile as Elly curled up again, almost cat-like:

"Sure. Goodnight."

…

Robyn and Jun were walking a meandering path, roughly following the river after they had visited the cluster of trees that had once been Kawaakari's professors, talking about everything and nothing. They could hear Jenna and the others chatting somewhere further away, but she alone could hear Elly floating nearby and inserting witty asides every so often.

"Here's a good place." Jun said suddenly, interrupting himself.

"Huh?"

Jun simply smiled at her:

"Something I wanted to show you, I just thought of it. Luckily, I have what I need."

He took one of the star-fruits that he'd picked from Professor Reoni's tree out of his pocket and held it up. Then very slowly and carefully, he crumbled it. Robyn gasped, but he then held the shimmering fragments together in his cupped hands, held them to his mouth and blew, before pointing.

Robyn stared as the wind-a breeze, really, mild for the middle of Storm Moon-picked up the shimmering fragments, making them swirl and dance before making them settle on a bare patch of ground a short distance away. As the wind settled back down into a breeze again, she followed him to this patch, and watched in wonder as grass began to grow. It looked, for the most part, like any grass. Except that deep from within, it glowed warmly, shimmering at the edges.

"It's not pollination, not in any way we know it. Given that right up until we killed them they had no mortality, it's hard to say whether their seeds can grow in the way that a plant's usually would. But things like this, and the fact we already know that it is possible to grow new trees from the cutting, it's…well…."

"It opens up the possibilities," she finished for him. "Doesn't it? What they could become, what this new world could become? So many possibilities."

Jun nodded, but before he could say any more there was a crashing and Jenna and Seraph appeared.

"Hey, guys, they've found some cool stuff from the Floating Gardens' wreckage-they basically finished clearing it all away! Wanna come see?"

Robyn and Jun both nodded, and walked behind at a slower pace as Jenna and Seraph bounded off. Eventually, they returned to the grounds and spotted their friends close to the central courtyard, clustered around two of the local university's archaeologists, who had a number of objects laid out on a tarpaulin. Elly was there too, but stood a fair bit apart, actually in the central courtyard and as they finally got closer she could feel why. The charms coming off of most of the items were the strongest she'd ever come across. They did not have a smell, as such, but there was something about the way they transformed the air that was almost as pungent as ginger or mustard. The way all the items sparkled was also a clear indicator of the magic used. Robyn had a feeling from such potency that this was yet more Ancient Magic at work.

"May I use that stool?" Jun asked, pointing to a small wooden stool near to one of the archaeologist's toolkits.

The man nodded, and Jun took it and sat down, rubbing his leg as he did so. When Robyn looked at him in concern he shook his head.

"It's alright," he reassured her. "Just a twinge. I'll be fine in a moment."

Robyn nodded and then knelt by the stool. The archaeologists handed them all gloves, and once they'd put them on she asked:

"What have we got?"

"We've already moved and sealed some of the stronger charms, spellbooks and weapons," the other archaeologist explained. "But these seem to be more mundane items-"

"That's a dagger!" Seraph exclaimed. "That's not mundane!"

The dagger in question was shaped like a crescent moon, and had a moon-like gleam to it too, with an elaborately carved black handle with a gold silk tassel hanging from it. Robyn spotted what looked like its twin nearby, almost identical except that the blade curved in the opposite direction and the tassel was silver.

The archaeologist was amused by this.

"This was probably more ornamental than anything, but it's hard to be sure. They had a lot of longer daggers, swords and suchlike."

"That makes sense," Kyouki said. "They were soldiers after all. But mostly these are all…household items?"

"Yes, that's right," the male archaeologist said. "It's likely that your headmaster and headmistress actually spent time living here-see this bowl?"

He paused to hold up a bowl shaped to look like a lotus, as well as a matching spoon.

"You can see from how the colours are somewhat faded and the way the spoon handle is slightly worn that they were well used. Just like a lot of these others."

"What are these little things?"

"Ornaments, we think. Just for decorative purposes. We found some paintings too," the male archaeologist said. "Though they're somewhat damaged, right, Cedar?"

"That's right, Torben, though some more than others."

"Can we see them?" Yara asked shyly.

Torben nodded, and gestured to Cedar who got up and walked over to a small tent. While they all waited for them to come back, they looked through the other things that had been laid out. Jewellery, including long looping chains like the ones that Headmistress Hades'; other shattered plates and bowls; perfume bottles; chair legs; items of clothing; a mirror. Lots of items, or fragments of them, that suggested a quiet life shared.

Soon after, Cedar came back with the paintings:

"Here we are."

"Oh, that looks like the painting in Shippa's library!"

Robyn turned to Elly, who had stepped a little closer out of curiosity but now flinched and then took a few abrupt steps back. She opted to lean forward instead, until her vision was blocked by the others crowded around.

"Let Elly see-she can't get any closer." Robyn reminded her friends

"Oh, right sure, sorry….um…."

Yara shuffled to the side and Elly was able to lean forward again and scrutinise the fragments before nodding and saying:

"Yep, definitely like that one."

"Elly thinks this is a painting Professor Rynacel did," Robyn asked. "Is that right, do you know?"

"Elly?" the archaeologists asked almost simultaneously.

"Elly De Aranka, otherwise known as Cookie, or her birth name of Ragna Dorotea Carrickschild." Robyn explained. "I'm….looking after her spirit, because her parents have delayed her funeral."

Robyn knew full well Elly was pulling a face at this, but it wasn't inaccurate. It was also the right thing to say, because although the two archaeologists exchanged looks they didn't press it further. Instead, they pointed out what they thought the paintings might have been of-mostly various landscapes, including some that would have been viewed from the Academy itself, but a few depicting scenes from the popular mythology of the Goddess Akari as well as images of The Great War. Three of the least damaged paintings portrayed their fallen comrades Eita, Lowen and Rielle.

After some time spent poring over these, they moved onto the other items, the archaeologists apparently using the time spent showing them off to also take an inventory of sorts. One of these particularly intrigued Robyn, two sets of circles made of finely-wrought silver and gold metal intertwined around each other, decorated with silver and gold decorations in the shape of various runes, pressed red rosebuds and a number of other flowers that had clearly been preserved with magic. They were tied together with opalescent ribbon.

"These look like something you might wear to your wedding." Robyn commented, picking them up.

"Huh, they do rather, don't they?" Seraph said. "But they weren't married, were they?"

"Certainly not officially, no. But they still might be wedding headdresses of a sort," Cedar said. "They look a lot like stefana-which comes from a tradition in the Central Mountains in Ancient Times-it was part of the ceremony to have wedding crowns blessed and then worn together like that for the ceremony. I do think some people in the area still practice it, but mostly for the symbolism since of course hand-fasting has taken over everywhere."

"Awww, that's so sweet!" Jenna cooed.

"Could one of them have been from the Central Mountains, then?" Jun asked curiously when he was handed the stefana to look at.

"Possibly," the male archaeologist said. "It's likely to be Hades, since her given name is obviously from a Lesser God of that region, combined with the fact that the last known eponymic she went by was Ioannaschild, though even that was in combination with varying given names. The most common name that crops up in relation to her is Eunike Ioannaschild, for example."

"Last known?" Yara asked.

"None of them had eponymics while teaching, remember?" Jun reminded her. "Did we ever know any of theirs? From before Kawaakari, I mean?"

"Some of them, yes. Others, like Hades, there are various possibilities but the one they started out with is uncertain." Cedar answered.

"It's probably why they've got the runes on the stefana," Torben remarked. "That wouldn't have been needed for any kind of official marriage, it's frankly a bit overkill."

"Perhaps they didn't need official work," Jenna said as Jun handed it to her. "I mean, the way we saw them at the end…in hindsight it makes sense that they'd be romantic too, basically."

"Surprising, though!" Seraph laughed. "They always seemed too…too grand for romance."

"Honey, nobody is too grand for romance-it's the grandest thing of all!"

Jenna pretended to swoon, and it made almost all of them laugh. Even Elly snorted, though when Robyn glanced at her she pulled a face. The exception was Yara, who shuffled uncomfortably where she sat. She didn't have her animals with her so she didn't have anything to settle her, so Robyn reached out.

"It's alright, it's about them with each other, not with students. Besides, these are probably from before Kawaakari, so before they were even the Headmaster and Headmistress, right?"

Torben nodded:

"I mean, we cannot be sure until we take everything in to analyse, but it's likely to date from around or before The Great War."

"Whenever it's from, and whether it was like, their actual thing, it's pretty. And sweet," Jenna said, giving it back to Cedar. "Let's look at something else!"

"Ooooh, what's that-"

"Don't touch that!"

Seraph scrambled back, drawing her hand back as if she'd been burnt. Cedar blinked abruptly and then rubbed their forehead.

"Sorry," they apologised. "Just, if you touch it, be careful. Certainly don't try to open it."

Seraph blinked as Robyn looked down at the object still on the tarpaulin-a small mahogany box of some sort. The Ancient Magic wafting over this was different, somehow. A great deal stronger, making her eyes water, but it did not feel like a smell or tingle. Rather, it felt like a warm glow in the chest, the way the franticness of being in the middle of swirling danger was tempered when you weren't alone in the danger. When there was a safe arm around your shoulders and whispered reassurances and a strong, valiant body shielding you.

"How come it's not with the other things you put away?" Robyn asked. "This feels stronger than the rest of the things."

"The magic only appears to be for the purpose of protection and preservation-you can tell from the design of the boxes that they're very, very old, which presumes that the hair inside it is possibly also very old."

Protection spells. That seemed to fit what Robyn was feeling.

"There's hair inside? How do you know?" Jun asked.

Torben pulled another pair of gloves out of his pocket and put them on over the ones he was already wearing before then reaching across and grabbing the box. It was only then that she could see that there was a glass-like panel on the top face of the box, making it seem more like a display box than the jewellery box she immediately assumed it was. Through that glass, she could see what was indeed a lock of hair-very small, slightly curled and almost colourless, tied up with ribbons. Some were black, the others silver-blue. She recognised them as mourning ribbons immediately.

"What in the world…?" Jenna said.

"Is that human hair?" Seraph asked.

"It doesn't look like fur, it's definitely hair…" Yara said. "But why is it almost see-through?"

"Maybe it's from like a deity or a lesser God?" Jun suggested. "Can I have a look?"

Robyn was about to pick up the box, when Torben stopped her by holding out another pair of gloves. She nodded and accepted them, and once she'd put them on she picked it up and held it up to Jun. He did not touch them but instead just studied them. She could tell that an idea was forming in his mind, coming together even if he wasn't sure what it was yet, much like when he'd provided them all with the solution of turning the Professors into trees. Even despite her own distress that day, she'd seen how he'd been trying and trying to make sense of things until finally they had clicked.

"I don't know why," he eventually said. "But I can't help but think that this was a child's hair."

"A child?" Robyn repeated.

"Mhm. I mean, it could just be a really short bit of hair snipped, but I think it's a child's hair. A baby's, maybe."

"That's…"

Robyn took a closer look, and the others also came over to frown at it.

"But why's it see-through?" Yara asked again.

"If I remember correctly, when a baby's hair first grows in-before they're born, I mean-it's colourless. It only gets its colour later, usually close to when they're about to be born, or a little bit after birth."

Everyone, including the archaeologists, blinked at her.

"Why would they have a baby's hair in boxes though?" Seraph wanted to know. "Immortal people can't have children."

"Not one baby," came a voice behind her. "Two of them."

Robyn jumped, and looked over to see that Elly was leaning over Jun's shoulder. She kept flinching from the effect of the magic-indeed, the strength of it was causing little sparks to form around her and the boxes, but despite the pain this was clearly causing her she stayed where she was. She even reached out as if to touch the box, although she stopped before she could actually attempt to do so.

Robyn waited for her to say something, but she didn't, staring at the two boxes with an expression that she just couldn't interpret. At least, not until Torben said:

"There would be some mention, somewhere, if they did have a child. Even if it was just rumours, if they'd had a child before losing their mortality it would be mentioned somewhere."

Elly's inexplicable expression momentarily twisted over into anger:

"What does he know?"

"Elly?"

"Robyn, what is it?" Jun asked.

More sparks formed as tears began to roll down Elly's face. Some hit the ground and made no mark, but a few ended up dropping on the box, causing small fizzing explosions of light. Instead of answering Jun, Robyn hissed at Elly:

"Move back, you're triggering the protections."

Elly glared at her, wet and vehement, but she did indeed step back, wrapping her arms around herself. She made no move to wipe her tears, but the sparks started to fade again.

"Did something just happen with your spirit?" Cedar asked mildly.

Robyn considered her answer as she handed the box back.

"I…I'm not sure, as such. She got too close looking to them, though. But I don't think any harm was caused, was it?"

"No, the box seems fine. But perhaps we should put them away, don't you think, Torben?"

"Yes, I do. And I think now we need to pack up."

"Awwww." Seraph pouted, before checking the time. "Oh well, at least it's pretty much time to go home."

As the items were packed away carefully and their gloves disposed of, Robyn watched Elly carefully. Saw how although she did eventually wipe away her tears, she still looked shaky, and kept craning to get any glimpse of the box until she could no longer see it. Robyn realised that although she did not know why, this reminded her of the time they had spoken to Rielle. The only other time she'd ever seen Elly cry.

And just like that time, she was sure she'd get no explanation for these tears.

…

It turned out that she was right. Elly blustered, swore and tried every trick up her sleeve to divert Robyn from the question of why she had cried. In her frustration, she had let slip the remark that this is where my name came from, but she did not elaborate on this. So Robyn gave up, and time continued on as it always had. The last funerals came and went, and the month changed. Elly didn't join Robyn at school so much, instead staying at home and reading the books left out for her. Indeed, as the end of the month approached, she seemed to study them particularly determinedly, perhaps looking for answers. Of course, she knew as well as Robyn did that the Other Side was meant to be unknowable, if indeed that was what she was looking for. On the other hand, this was Elly. If she could glean an answer to whatever question she wanted from what she read over and over, then she'd do it somehow. She still spent the rest of her time chatting and making both her and her grandmother laugh, or haunting the grounds of Kawaakari.

One day, when they had finished dinner, and Elly had gone back up to finish the latest batch of books that Robyn had borrowed from the library just for her, her grandmother stopped her from going to do the washing up.

"I'll do it for today. I want to give you something, and then let you think about it. I bought them down here thinking of you, so I may as well do it now before I forget again."

Curious, Robyn watched her grandmother go to the spoon drawer and pull out a small wooden box. It was made of birch rather than mahogany, but Robyn immediately thought of the boxes of hair. However, with no glass-like panel in the top, just delicate heart-shaped carvings instead, it was clear that this was actually a jewellery box. When her grandmother handed it over, Robyn took it uncertainly and hesitantly opened it.

Two cherry wood rings, carved to look like laurel wreaths, strung onto a small loop of pink silken thread and nestled in an old handkerchief. She recognised them immediately-she'd seen the copper versions in photographs so many times.

"My parents' engagement rings?" she asked. "You had them?"

"Well, their wedding rings were buried with them, of course. But I thought you might want to keep these ones as a keepsake someday. I remember Asmundur discarding so many attempts before finally getting the shape he wanted."

"I didn't know that, that Dad made the design." Robyn said. "But I don't…I don't understand. I mean, I'm glad you're giving them to me but I don't know why."

"When Asmundur met Cecelia, they both knew. They knew that they were right for each other, even though they were so young at the time. They wanted to get married right out of high school, but I told Asmundur no, that they were too young-see, being older, I thought myself wiser. And I thought that my wisdom told me they couldn't possibly be that solid. Of course, in the end they finished their university studies and waited a little before marrying and having you, and they were happy enough….but not for long enough."

Robyn was starting to see what her grandmother was getting at, but when she tried to interject her grandmother held up a hand:

"Now, perhaps you and your Jun don't want to marry straight away, and that's fine too. But since you could, technically, get engaged from next year, I want you to know you have my blessing. You don't even need to use these rings, but perhaps you might want to base your own design off of them, or just use them as a way to ask the question. But the pair of you have had such a difficult year, and now it's almost ending. I'd like, where possible, for your next year to start as happy as possible, and for it to be the first of many, many more happy years than your parents managed to get."

Her grandmother wiped away a tear, and Robyn gave her a tight hug, resting her head against her shoulder. Her grandmother sighed.

"Of course, maybe this is it, the last bad thing that will ever happen to you, but you and I both know that that's no guarantee. Us both, and that poor girl upstairs. Though, I don't imagine that she was the romantic type in life."

Robyn giggled.

"Not even vaguely."

"Still, she was the one who helped me find the rings, with what power she had left. I have such a lot of things of theirs, as it turns out. But yes, the rings are yours now. Do whatever you want with them, just…once that girl's finally been seen off, concentrate on life from now on. Your shared life."

Robyn smiled, and after giving her grandmother another quick squeeze she let go.

"I will."

She tried to offer to help with the washing, but her grandmother chased her away. Closing the box, she headed upstairs to see that Elly had been waiting for her.

"Were you listening?" Robyn inquired as she went to sit on her bed, opening the box again and taking out the rings.

"Maybe," Elly shrugged. "I was curious, considering. So, what are you going to do, then? Are the pair of you going to get married?"

"Well, I have to wait until Awakening Moon to ask-"

"Why? You may as well ask now."

"Well…I feel like it would be nicer with all the blossom out, and all. And it would feel more fitting, considering it would be a new beginning. Besides, you do realise that whether I ask now or wait the few weeks, it'll still be a couple years before we can actually set a date. Assuming he says yes to marrying so soon, anyway."

"Of course he's going to say yes, I mean the two of you…"

Rolling her eyes, she bounced onto the end of Robyn's bed before suddenly fixing her with a searing gaze:

"Once you do get married, the two of you will be having blood children eventually then, won't you?"

Robyn spluttered.

"That's an extremely personal question!"

"Yes, but will you?"

Robyn sighed and rubbed her head. She didn't even attempt to try and understand where Elly could be going with this and told her:

"You're getting far too comfortable with haunting me, you know."

"It's almost the end of the month, I'll be out of your hair before long," Elly said flippantly. "But you gonna answer my question or not?"

Robyn groaned again, feeling herself go red. But then she looked at Elly and noticed something in her gaze. Without really understanding why, she immediately thought of the box with the baby hairs and it made her heart heavy at the loss they represented. Whatever loss that had truly been, it was just another on a pile of so many. They needed new beginnings, a spring to come after this painful winter, didn't they? After being steeped in death, she wanted to immerse herself in life.

"Yes," Robyn answered gently. "I hope so."

Elly nodded hard.

"Then, if you have twin girls, you have to keep them. No matter what, please keep them both. Please love them. Please."

Elly drew her legs up and propping her elbows on them, before then resting her chin on her hands. Her gaze was directed downwards, but Robyn wondered what it was she was looking at. A silence thickened before abruptly, Elly jumped off of the bed, expression closed off.

"Well, whatever. Are you using your desk?"

Robyn shook her head, and Elly went back to the desk and the open books. After a short time, Robyn began to get ready for bed and by the time she came back, Elly had disappeared. Robyn turned the lights off and reopened the curtains, but when she lay down she found that she could not sleep. Instead, she found her mind going back to the last time someone dead had tried to get a promise from her:

"You asked me if I have any regret. Do you want to know the answer to that?"

She just wondered how long she would be able to wait.

"I regret you." Yoyo answered, eventually.

"I…I don't understand."

"You almost loved me, didn't you? On the first day of school, when you walked into the infirmary and we met, I could see it in your eyes. You liked what you saw. I could even say that you were smitten-oh, don't look so scandalised. I was too. Interested, to boot. I've never known a necromancer who didn't have at least a trace of bitterness in them-you were the first. I was sure that with time, perhaps winning your heart would be something feasible. But then you met that boy."

"Jun." Robyn said, automatically.

"And just you uttering his name explains everything, really, doesn't it? That was fate too, really. How easily and quickly you clicked, the way you looked when you talked about him even on that first day. I knew from that moment that there would be no chance."

"You were jealous?"

Yoyo burst into more peals of laughter:

"Don't be silly. You were asking about regrets. I regret that life did not go in such a way that we could have been something, but what point was there in envy? I knew, after all, that for all your gentleness that if I were to hurt him then that would only mean I'd lose what little I did have of you. Your admiration, your respect, the fact you still called me friend. That you looked up to me-why, I could have lived off of that feeling. I didn't want to lose it."

"I lost that anyway." Robyn said carefully.

Yoyo's smile wavered once again.

"I'm glad, though, that you have him. I could never be that straightforward, that lovely, even though that's exactly what you need and want. Not with my fate. I was happy for you when I realised he did actually care for you. I still am. It's not easy, for those who don't understand death to love ones like us."

Yoyo shook herself slightly, and tugged her hair out of the bun it was in, letting her corkscrew curls bounce around her head. She then reached out again, this time stretching her hand so that her fingers lightly cupped Robyn's face. She flinched, and Yoyo smiled sadly before stepping away, folding her hands behind her back.

"You may have lost whatever regard you have had of me, but you know it's true, don't you? In another life where your boy did not exist, it could have been me you loved. Couldn't it?"

Robyn admitted this was true, but did not want to speak the words aloud so she nodded, and Yoyo's look sharpened into triumph:

"Then, forgive me."

"That's-"

"I never did collect my debt from you, did I?"

"That book-you had us running in circles because of that book! That wasn't a true favour!"

"Well, I couldn't properly help you, could I? I had a duty, after all. Protecting you from her was hard enough. I did my best!"

"That doesn't make it any better either, Yoyo-sempai."

"So you keep saying. Nonetheless, I granted that favour, did I not? So I need to collect my debt. It's a shame I cannot collect from Jun-kouhai or Julka, but luckily, one of them will be a semi-shared endeavour."

"That's…."

Yoyo's expression remained fixed, but her eyes flashed as she fixed Robyn with a determined gaze. Robyn gazed back, determined to not flinch. If she could have loved Yoyo once, she couldn't now, not now that she was nothing like the girl that she'd held in such high regard once. The wind began to howl, signalling an ending and Yoyo began to sway but she determinedly kept her footing as she declared:

"One of them shared, because there are only two things I want from you."

Yoyo held up two fingers, and raised her voice over the howling:

"Firstly-forgive me. And secondly…be happy with him."

Robyn turned to stare at her bedside table, where the box with her late parents' engagement rings sat. She remembered how the dream had ended at that point and she'd woken up gasping, scrabbling for breath. She'd just been relieved that Elly hadn't been there to notice her state that night, and that her grandmother hadn't heard. She wasn't sure she could have told either of them about the visitation, especially since she had not answered Yoyo's final request. She could have answered it, even as the dream was ending, but she hadn't.

And now she'd failed Elly in the same way.

She just hoped it was not too late to fix things.

…

The final day of the Crow Moon came too fast, too fast for her to find the moment to make things right with Elly. Indeed, when the day itself dawned she disappeared completely, most likely as a result of her funeral officiant's final preparations. The thinning of the air suddenly felt too empty, but it was how it was supposed to be, a good sign, so Robyn soldiered on. There was no school for her, so she spent most of the day clearing all the spells and charms away while her grandmother was at work, before returning all the books that Elly had borrowed. She tried to work out which bits that Elly had been reading so closely, but she had not been able to work it out.

Then, she made her way down to Kawaakari's ruins, where she met both Jun and Julka. Together, as they'd planned, after signing in with the sentry on duty that day, they headed straight to what remained of the South Wing. Straight to the Angel Tree. Jun's leg had become a lot better in these past few weeks, so he led the way in climbing up, but he did not go as high as he usually would have. Robyn found a branch close to his, while Julka went to the other side of the tree, a little lower down. Once they were settled in the branches, they simply sat for a while, each with thoughts of their own.

"So, here it is," Julka sighed. "Another end. What do you think is going to happen now?"

"I don't know." Jun answered.

Although they were low down, they could see over the ruined walls to the grounds below, to the gardens where the Gardening Club had once worked so hard to bring colour and beauty to the school.

"I heard…" he said slowly. "They might try and make something out of this. All this. Like…somewhere for people to visit."

"Like a museum or something?" Robyn asked.

"I think so, I don't know. That part's not for us, after all. We'll be going back to school soon, back home. But I think it'd be nice for this to become something, don't you think? It would be a shame to just let it remain as ruins."

"Something should be reborn from all the destruction." Robyn said.

"Exactly."

Jun nodded hard as he said this, then sighed and stared out at the remains of the gardens before adding:

"Whatever it is, I hope it has gardens. It should have gardens, I think."

"Why not ask?"

Both Robyn and Jun looked at Julka, who averted her gaze briefly, fidgeting before elaborating:

"You're good at gardening, right, even if we're all just high schoolers still? You could ask. And maybe in the holidays you could be an assistant or something, if they said yes to a garden."

"That….yeah, maybe I could?"

"It would be a good start to the new year, wouldn't it?" Robyn said. "I think you should do it."

Jun nodded thoughtfully at this.

"Maybe I will."

They sat there in quiet contemplation for a little while, before the silence was broken, once again by Julka:

"I don't really have any plans, for my future, you know?" she started. "But…I do want to live life to the fullest. Not just for me, but for Elly particularly. She was…"

Julka hesitated.

"She came to me in a dream, a couple days ago. Or maybe I just made it up, but she asked me something…a promise. Not the type of thing I would have been expecting her to ask-it was very un-Cookie like of her. But she seemed so pleased that she'd reached me I was sure it was genuine, I could tell, even if I did somehow just dream it rather than her actually, you know…"

Julka gestured helplessly, and Robyn just nodded. In her mind, Elly's request to her echoed. Then, if you have twin girls, you have to keep them. No matter what, please keep them both. Please love them. Please, and somehow she knew that this was what Elly had been working towards. All the books, she'd found a way to reach a non-necromancer in dreams and she somehow knew that what had been asked of her had also been asked of Julka. She did not ask to confirm this, and did not ask if Julka had promised. Julka would have, unlike her she would have. Sorrow settling heavy in her stomach, Robyn instead asked:

"She was like life itself, sometimes, wasn't she?"

"Yes! Exactly! It's not fair that we're sitting here thinking of her, instead of saying goodbye to her. She deserves a better funeral."

"Many of them do, don't they?" Jun remarked.

Robyn knew what he was thinking of-of Aerin looking vacant at Samu's funeral; Sasi being taken outside during Tricker's funeral, her simmering rage towards his parents so red-hot it had almost turned white; the deluge of tears at Will's so strong they'd all almost been swept away on the sorrow. Other students whose funerals she hadn't been able to attend, others who hadn't had anyone to truly mourn them. The sorrow became harder, stone-like at the thought.

"Let's do that, then," Robyn said. "Julka-sempai, I don't know about what you might want to do with your life, specifically, but let's get all the others to help and organise a proper goodbye, for next Crow Moon."

Julka's eyes widened, but then she nodded determinedly.

"Yes, lets."

"What do you think, Jun?" Robyn asked.

"I think that's a great idea, actually. I'm sure Yara and the others will definitely agree to help. We can even go and ask them, in a moment."

As he smiled at her, Robyn felt the sorrow shrink a little bit.

"I'm looking forward to it," Julka said. "But Robyn, what are your plans? Do you have anything particular?"

"Well, carrying on with school and then a nursing course so I can become a proper nurse," Robyn said. "But then…"

Blushing slightly, and wishing she'd thought to bring her parents' rings with her, she looked back at Jun:

"When you come to visit me this weekend," she told him. "I've got something to show you, and something to ask about it. I think…I think you'll like it."

Jun blinked at her for a moment, confused, but then held his hand out. Robyn reached out and grasped it. They all gazed out at the remains of the gardens, and she felt that sorrow shrink further, dissolve and become a part of her. Like fate and war, for a necromancer death was always inescapable but more so for her, after being steeped in tragedy for so long. But now this year had ended, all the dead had been sent off, she no longer had to be in the thick of it. It was time to focus on life and living, as her grandmother had said.

"Firstly-forgive me. And secondly…be happy with him."

The first, especially, would probably take her time. But she knew that as the years went on and became decades, she would be able to fulfil those promises. If it came to it, she'd be able to fulfil Elly's too. In the meantime though, spring was coming, and with it hope and the future were blooming. Just like perhaps one day, the very garden she was looking at would bloom again.

She was looking forward to it.

Note: the stefana is technically a Greek Orthodox wedding thing rather than anything to do with Ancient Greece, but it seemed to me a fair enough thing to incorporate into the Ancient Greek/ Greek Myth inspired parts of the little worldbuilding details here.