.
.
"He betrayed you," Amshel said. Diva stood, looking over Solomon's body as she pushed one limp shoulder with the toe of her shoe, frowning. "What will you do now?"
"Hmph," Diva said. "Use him for your experiments for all I care. It doesn't matter."
"As you wish."
Her face betrayed nothing when Amshel and his guards hoisted the body up, hefting Solomon across the grass and throwing him onto the stretcher. Slowly, she walked through the garden, down the rose-lined path and to the gates of her home.
In her bedroom, she collapsed onto herself, back against the door and crying. Everybody leaves. Even her sweet Solomon. Diva squeezed her eyes, her chest wracked with the staccato subglottal stops of her crying. A disordered kind of breathing. She lifted a shaking hand and hugged herself.
"Saya-neesama," Diva said. "Saya-neesama. Why doesn't anyone love me?"
The emptiness of the room had no answer.
xXx
.
The candlelight was flickering, casting an ambient glow across the room. Diva had complained loudly that the light would not let her sleep, but Karl lit the candle anyway, climbing in the bed beside her.
"I hate the light," Diva said. He felt her press up against the hollows of his body, glaring into his chest. "It makes me sick."
He brushed back the soft hairs from her temple, pressing his lips against her skin. "Annoying," Diva said, and she smiled and closed her eyes.
xXx
.
They do not hold a funeral.
The place where they had fought, where Saya had exploded like a phoenix over the scorched earth, is razed, the once tall grasses burnt and trampled underfoot. Slowly, Solomon makes his way through the ruins to the place where Karl had died, the pile of crystals glinting in the watery sun.
Foolish. Everything was foolish. Sister against sister. Brothers murdering brothers. Silently Solomon picked through the ashes, wondering what the hell it was all for.
In his mind, he remembers the village. The wind will rise and fires will dim to a muted orange, and when the sky opens and begins to rain, he'll take the crystal in his hand, and wait for the storm to finally wash over.
.
end.