[PK] From Dirt to Dust

[NotCube 48]

The 10^th of Snow’s Maiden, 1767

 

“The healthy human mind doesn't wake up in the morning thinking this is its last day on Earth. But I think that's a luxury, not a curse. To know you're close to the end is a kind of freedom.”

 

It was about a couple minutes past midnight. Lily had gotten a habit of writing in her journal about anything from the happiness of day-to-day life in Haense to topics like love and sadness. She would take pride in this, as sometimes she would flip through the journal and smile at past events. As she wrote she noted that today was boring, with not much happening besides the sunset being as beautiful as always. But this day was different. As she continued to write in her journal a piece of paper would slowly emerge from it, clearly intentionally put. She would notice said paper and take it out, remembering why she had put it there in the first place. 

 

 

The paper would have been written in red ink and was given to her seemingly randomly before her oathing. She had shown it to Erwin after she had noticed and picked it up, questioning who gave it to her and why it was there for her in the first place. She thought nothing of it at the time, but kept an eye out for anything unusual that could and would have happened. Time passed, battles were fought, and she had slowly forgotten about that paper and its significance. 

 

“Marked for death. Har har.” She’d laugh to herself as she pushed the note aside. 

 

Lily thought about it for a minute, thinking that maybe this note had more significance than she initially thought. She dismissed that thought, as Haense was a relatively secure city and there would be nothing to worry about, as her fellow brotherhood members would protect her like she would them. She smiled at the thought. It was a good feeling to have comradeship like that. She quickly added this thought to her journal before dozing off from sheer tiredness.

 

On any normal day it would have been true. 

Except this day was different.

Lily would never wake up from her slumber, and the news would only be brought up the next afternoon, when Lily was found sitting at her desk with a knife in her back, and the note laid like a bookmark to the page in her journal she was writing before her sleep.

 

“My joining of the Brotherhood was the best thing I’ve done in my life, and I wouldn’t take it back for the world. As much as I’m not the best fighter, I try and I would die in the heat of combat if it meant they would come back home safe.”

• Lily Ridgeworth Mackensen