-Than-

The climb up to the top was grueling. She was leading me up a precarious path that only someone living in the area would have known about. I was recovering pretty quickly, but I was still weaker than usual. Bree was constantly having to stop dashing up the steep path to wait for me to catch up. The sun was at its peak, and there was little shade as we hurried our way up the path. We only really stopped the hurried ascent three times, and only to let me catch my breath and get a drink of water. Bree seemed unfazed by the rapid pace we were keeping, and I was again reminded of my own weakness.

As we slowly approached the plateau, I became keenly aware of a sickly smell I knew too well.

"Bree! Bree!" I cried after her. She stopped, ten meters from me and about five meters above and waited for me to reach her. When I caught up to her, I took a moment to catch my breath before saying "It's not gonna be pretty."

"Why do you say that?"

"You smell that?"

She sniffed the air around her, then looked at me. "Are you sure you are alright?"

"Yes. You really don't smell that?"

She shook her head and started moving up again, nimbly leaping over the rocks and easily going through the loose stones. I, on the other hand, was struggling mightily as I followed her. I kept slipping and was constantly forced to try to grab onto something to catch myself. I could have told her what I thought I smelled, but I prayed with every fiber of my being that I was wrong, and I didn't want her to have that fear as well.

The sun was descending as we were nearing the plateau when Bree stopped, covered her face with a cloth, and sprinted forwards, not looking back once to make sure I was keeping up. I struggled to follow, but she was out of sight in no time. Luckily, the path seemed to become easier to see as we had reached the top, and by now I could see it with no problems at all. Seeing Bree disappear gave me a burst of energy, both from fear for my own survival and for hers. If Charybdis or Sylvia was up there… I shuddered at the thought. I was in no shape to fight them. I couldn't protect her from them.

I finally reached the plateau and saw a sickening scene. I vaguely remembered the village, the look of the buildings, the positioning of them and such. Now, the only reason I knew it was the village I was at before was because there was no other cliff that led to where I landed. The buildings were burnt to the ground, leaving only scorched remains. The smell of smoke hung in the air, mingling with the sickly sweet smell I've been smelling for a while. My stomach churned as I realized that I couldn't find any bodies. I started walking through the destruction, kicking debris here or there, when I noticed a path cutting through the trees. Seeing nothing but the leveled buildings here, I made my way through the trees. As I kept walking, the smell got stronger and stronger, and I knew that I was going the right way and that I was approaching a horrifying sight. Finally, the path opened into a rather large clearing, and I stared at the carnage before me. In the middle of the clearing lay a large pile of bodies. Every single villager was there, all sporting various lethal wounds that were inflicted by the Junel. Some were dismembered, and the lost limbs could be seen hanging from the trees. I stepped forward, in a horrified trance, and accidentally kicked a large rock. When I looked down to see what I kicked, I realized that it was not a rock, but instead the severed head of a child. I scrambled backwards, horrified. As I slowly made my way around, seeing the atrocity before me, I noticed Bree. She was kneeling by the pile, holding a hand that was connected to a body that was close to the bottom of the pile. She had her back to me, but I could clearly see her back shuddering, and I heard the sound of sobbing. As I stepped closer, I stepped on a twig. She turned quickly when she heard the loud snap, her nose and eyes red and her face tear stricken. She grabbed her walking stick and came at me. I was able to dodge her first swing, but she quickly spun it back and hit me before I could react. Usually it wouldn't be enough to do anything to me, but in my weakened state it was enough to knock me to the ground. She hit me again, and again, before I quickly turned and grabbed the stick. She kicked me in the arm, but I managed to hold on. I wrenched the stick from her and rolled away, then stood before she could kick me again and threw the stick behind me, adrenaline coursing through me.

"I didn't do this!" I yelled at her as I dodged a sloppy punch. She tried to punch again, only this time instead of just dodging I got behind her and wrapped my arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides.

"I didn't do this. I didn't do this. I didn't do this" I kept saying, arms wrapped around her as she fought to get free. She got a few kicks in, but I refused to let go. Eventually, she seemed to calm down a bit. I let go, and she scrambled away from me, grabbed her stick, and held it pointed at me, ready to strike.

"Who are you." Not a question, but a command. At least she wasn't blindingly flailing around and attacking me.

"Than Valum. Personal aide to-" I stopped as I dodged a strike from her.

"No pooda. Talk. Now."

"An agent for Lord Terrias, the leader of the Alliance. I learned information I shouldn't have known, and was tricked into coming here to be executed. I fought back, which is how I ended up falling. When I fell, the village was still there, I swear. I believe that Charybdis did this. He's an assassin for Lord Terrias, and he and a group of Junel were the ones who tried to kill me. I swear on my blade." I took out the hilt of my saber and tossed it on the ground in between us. She glanced at the hilt, then at me, before putting the stick down and sitting down, crying.

I felt her pain. Truly, I have been where she is. I looked around at the grim scene, and had an idea. I knelt next to her and gently said "Bree."

She ignored me, so I stood up and walked to the pile of bodies. Carefully, I maneuvered my way around to avoid stepping on anybody and carefully took a body off the top of the pile, laying it on the ground. I then took another from the pile and layed it next to the one I had just laid down. Then another, and another, making sure to cross their arms on their chests to conserve space and so that none were touching, making sure to give each a sacred spot on the ground.

"What are you doing?!"

I turned and said "Preparing the bodies. What is the tradition in your village for when somebody dies? What happens?" Seyley are very social, and the whole village was like a family. I had a gut feeling that the same thing applied to this secluded place. A proper ceremony was important for the memory of the deceased, and I was determined to provide that for each villager. Bree saved my life, and the Alliance ruined hers. The least I could do was give the proper send-off, to try and ease the pain she felt by giving her a chance to mourn and by being there for her. It was something that I never had.

I spent the entire night and the next five days collecting bodies, carrying them to a special pyre, and burning them. Bree would sit there, tears running down her face, silently watching the bodies go up in flames. The flesh would burn off in less than an hour, at which point the fire was put out and the remaining bones were thrown over a specific part of the cliff, where they'd plummet three hundred meters into a lake. Overall, the process took a little over an hour. Usually, the entire day would be used to honor the person, but Bree said it wasn't necessary. There were too many bodies. Whenever a body was dismembered, I tried to find the missing body part. I climbed the trees to grab the limbs that were thrown all over and bring them down. Then I had to put it together, like a puzzle. Had to figure out what went where and with whom. We stopped a couple times to eat and drink, and I would put it on hold so Bree could sleep. I slept sparingly, and I made sure that I was always awake before her. Few words were exchanged. Towards the end, she wasn't crying. She was all out of tears.

Her family was on the bottom of the pile. When I got to them, she burst into a completely new round of tears. She insisted that her parents be burned together, holding hands, and she took a patch off of her arm and placed it with her nan to be burned. The patch was the sign in the village for healer, and her nan's was nowhere to be found. She took a ring off the finger of one body, brought it to her mouth, kissed it, and placed it on her left index finger. It was a simple metal circle, but she held it as if it was made of solid gold.

"Boyfriend," she said, noticing my questioning glance. "Five years. My best friend." She choked up a bit, then said "He told me he would propose to me using that ring. It was a joke, but I always thought…" She smiled at the memory, then glanced at her hand. "I never thought I would ever put anything on this finger" she said quietly, almost to herself.

The widow finger. Seyley had a similar tradition.

As the sun was setting on the final day, the last body was burned. A little boy, one who Bree knew and had treated before. After the bones were thrown into the water, she hugged me and whispered "Thank you."