[PK] A Knight's Passing

[_Sug 2556]

Alaion sat within a small temple somewhere, staring out at the sea from afar. He was hopeful that he would get another conversation with Elena upon her return home. However, fate would have it that their conversation earlier that day would be their last together. So, the youth awaited but little did he know his hope would never come to fruition.

 

[fredkitten 11]

Alityr stood beside toan occupied cot in Norland's clinic, a protective hand resting carefully on the leg of her injured daughter. She had arrived home just a few hours earlier, bloodied and battered from a daunting fight. It was a miracle she had lived to tell the tale.

 

Others unfortunately didn't get the same fate. 

 

The last thing the war-torn soldier expected was for a bird to fly through the large window, letter in mouth. She thanked the crow with a dip of her head, no doubt one of Neithri's, and accepted to piece of worn paper. Taking a quick glance to her peacefully resting kin, she carefully read over the writing.

 

The words shocked her to her core, leaving her hands trembling. " Elena.. " The two surely had their troubles, but to hear or her sacrifice? It was utterly devastating. Eyes once more cast to the woman sleeping beside her, a sob tearing it's way out of her throat. " She sacrificed herself for the group. Anastatsya wouldn't have survived if it weren't for her." 

 

Alityr, a gravely emotional person, weeped greatly for a woman she once despised.

 

A candle was lit by her daughters beside in honor of the paladin's great sacrifice, a phrase mumbled underneath her breath. 

 

"I apologize, and forgive you, Elena of Joma." 

[Whiplash 464]

Melfani Mashan roamed a forest by herself, a look of pain washing over her countenance. She knew what she needed to find. As thick brush and large trees gave way to a clearing, the Viper looked up at the skies above. They were blue - a prettier day than she would have expected. If only she didn't have to use it mourning. Her hands traveled down to her greaves, withdrawing a thin knife that she had kept close to her calves. She held it close to her body. Elena made her want to keep it closer to herself than ever.

 

She made her way over to the marker. A shrine once shown to her by someone she had truly cared for. She placed her hand on it, running her fingertips on the slightly tarnished stone of the shrine, its gray stone developing green, mossy pockmarks, as nature began to take over. The 'ame dropped down on her knees, setting a small clay bowl before filling it with incense. A few moments later, once it was lit, she withdrew from the grave. Elena made her want to do that.

 

Then, the Viper found herself beside a tree, watching the incense burn from afar. She took the knife and began to carve into the bark of the tree, her eyes narrowed as she scratched a few letters into it. Once she was finished, she pursed her lips, looked over her lovely work, and withdrew herself from the location.

 

M + E

 

No longer would Melfani Mashan be haunted by her mistakes. She could be anywhere right now, that canonist whom she cherished. If ever there were a passionate, selfless person, it was her.

 

The Viper was certain where she had gone.

[Andustar 2118]

"Elena..." Albéric was no stranger to the loss of comrades. Yet, the death of one so devoted and eager shook him. "One chapter ends, another begins. May you serve dutifully alongside our lord. We shall meet again, someday."

[Rhettthecoldone 62]

Faeran the elf wandered aimlessly through his abode in Vallagne. He wasn’t sure how to think of this…

 

Elena had always been a a respectful and respectable person, at least to Faeran. Though he remembers the awfulness she performed, unintentionally tearing her apart from her own family. Something about hearing the news touched him. Maybe he should’ve seen her differently. Maybe he should’ve listened closer to her reasonings. Perhaps they weren’t as foolish as he thought.

 

His gaze wandered up to the bright and shining, silvery entity in the sky. It was the moon that illuminated his ashen skin, in castings of silver light. Hushedly, he spoke…

 

“Let ‘er be with ye, oh moon so bright.”

[Greehn 1850]

While they would forever be enemies, Vahlok would bring his hands together in prayer, closing his eyes for the fallen Paladin. 

 

"May she rest in peace, the only active duty Paladin. Forever will you be remembered."

[Pancho 2527]

Cerrick Fenifaer, an initiate of the Order, silently dipped his head as he finally could recount the death. He couldn't do anything in the moment, already taking an arrow to the chest. Though he wish he could've done more for the Fallen.

[wardyn 64]

When Neithri Þér Heskynne received the news, she fell silent. She walked away.

 

Her path took her to the Hearth, with a pricking of saline in her eye and a candle in her hand. A stick of pine needle incense lit above the roaring hearth, and carried its small flame to the candle. She cupped her hand around the flame and continued to walk, finding her way out of her walled city and into the tundra. Her path trailed and danced and slowed to a stop in a small clearing, an ashen campfire covered in snow. Taking care to keep the candle alive, she brushed off the snow to find miraculous embers within. Her own Hearth, here in the woods. 

 

To say her relationship with Elena was rough was an understatement. A strong woman whose values never wavered, even when her actions lead to scorn. Even, at times, a cold hatred. Neithri could not find it within herself to forgive Elena for her actions against her family. But nonetheless, here, by these small embers, the hunter knelt and begin to lay handfuls of dried twigs and leaves down, blowing gently upon them. An earthy smoke began to rise from the campfire.

Neithri found she could see a part of herself in Elena's strength, even when the clash of those values lead to a rift that never had time to mend. Grudges held ran deep and she hadn't wanted to fix it, and yet, now there was no more time to even... begin to try to forgive. It left a brackish guilt in her stomach. The tinder began to glow and curl with life, and she set the small candle in the center. The tinder began to catch, alighting into little fires, the wax of the candle bubbling and melting away.

The hunter held love in her heart for all her family, a love that burned hot and bright and eternal. And she could never deny that she still held love in her heart for the woman who was once her paladin. Her golden warrior. When she closed her eyes, she felt bitterness, and anger, and warmth, and love, and it was a dizzying storm of feelings. A few more warm tears rolled down her cheeks and she blinked hard. She never even got to say goodbye. 

The fire continued to build, feeding it bundles of dried stick and wood until it grew into a pyre, orange and red and white twisting and leaping into the air, curls of black smoke rising above the trees. Warmth battered against the hunter's face, shakily stoic. In one hand she held a knife, and in the other, a piece of wood, which she began to whittle away, taking the form of a dove. Then, she turned the blade so it bit harsh across her palm, the small well of blood she pressed into the dove. Next, a strip of fabric from her cloak, wrapping and swaddling the wooden thing.

The fire blazed bright and hot and she murmured a few words and pressed her lips to the head of the wooden dove, before pushing her arm into the fire just long enough to set the dove at the built center, where the candle once was.

She stayed there until the pyre burned back down to embers.

[TeawithFrisket 2634]

"It was not in vain. . .Elena, I-. . .miss you- already." In a while, she knew that in the end- Elena did more than Sofiele could ever do, she would not shed a tear, but feel as if something was added to her back. "I shan't lower my shield, in your name, and the name of other fallen shields."

[AlternisJ 128]

The uruk looked down towards the floor, wondering how this could of happened. Absolutely destroyed interally as he muttered to himself. "May I continue the lessons you taught me... And may my weapon continue to slain dark spawn for you old friend. May the spirits treat you well."

[Wizry 358]

The half-plated man toiled at his animii limbs as he considered the fatalities of the day. Of the fourty-five members who went to fight, only three had perished - and all objectives had been completed. Though the last one had taken more than its fair share of time, but that was inconsequential in the long run. A fantastic operation, though perhaps too reliant on deific interventionism.

 

Elena resided in his mind for a moment as the man turned off the gearheart to begin cleaning out his right arm from all the wear & tear. He remembered how his reaction to her; how his leftenant, Ahren, had reacted to her; and how Magnus had reacted to her. The paladin had charged the drake head-on in an attempt to distract them to give her comrades time.

 

All this she had done against the understanding of what had actually been going on in the situation. The drake wasn't even fazed - merely going to throw its lance at the shield yet again until Sordran appeared.

 

Cathan chose to disagree with Magnus that Elena would not be remembered as he cracked the cleaning brush he was using inbetween the animii-plates, fishing them out. She would not be remembered as a good woman, but a lesson against naivety.

 

It was as it was once said, long ago:

"The only real power is the power of the masses, united and determined."

 

Elena had forgotten that - and had performed an example of why working alone & without awareness of the situation at hand could never work.

She had died uselessly.

[BluePearl13 63]

Alvena did not take the loss well. She never took loss well. She spent about an hour punching a tree and screaming until her voice was sore and her knuckles too bloodied to keep going. A coping mechanism that she had thought she'd left behind with the anger of her childhood, but no, that anger was still there and more alive than ever with the news of her aunt's passing.

While Alvena's relationship with her aunt had been strained ever since Elena began to fight with Auntie Laurissa, she still cared for her. Elena had been the first of Alvena's aunts that she felt a real bond with and even after Alvena had sided with Laurissa, Elena still showed her care. She was still family to her.

Admittedly, there was a certain guilty sense of relief hearing of her death. After all, it meant one less threat to Alvena's family, and that she would never have to fight against her own aunt. There were few things Ali feared, but hurting family was definitely among her greatest fears. As she started to calm down from her anger, there was comfort in knowing she couldn't hurt Elena now.

Ali started to wrap up her hands as she tried to think of a productive way to move forward. It was hard. She wasn't a level headed woman, but she knew if Elena was there, she'd want her to try to think clearly, so she paced until something came to her. She knew exactly what she needed to do next, the perfect way to honor her aunt.

[Ultrabrine 19]

The Valkyrie leader sat at her newly established desk, one of her recruits brought a flier to her. after examining the flier, she only said two words"Leave me"as the recruit closed the door, several loud crashes echoed through the room as she flipped the desk, the bookshelves crashing to the floor, pencils, pens and papers flew about the room, landing scattered along the floor, a loud scream of pain echoed from her heard and through the streets of haense, in the now cluttered room only one thing managed to land straight up. a painting, one she had sitting on her desk of her and her sister being goofballs together.

The girl cumpled the paper together and clutched it to her chest, curling up onto a ball on the floor as she sobbed, then cried, her pained cries echoing and eminating from the room. she remembered all she did for her sister, the memories they shared together. 

 

eventually, she stood up and wiped her tears "leoni... im coming" was all she said as she let the crumpled flier fall to her feet. she knew all too well what the girl would be feeling.

[HazelWazel 448]

It was only when they counted and named the dead that Delmria Sylvaeri learned the fate of the young Paladin. It caused her to take pause in organization of what little medicine she had left from the gruesome and bloody battle. It had only been a few hours ago that they stood within the once sacred halls of Tahariae's Temple, Elena asking her about what had occurred to her sight, and the cleric in turn offering the other some perhaps harsh advice on conversation.

 

Regret. Frustration. Despair.

 

There were so many other things they could have spoke about, so many far more kind things that she could have said. But there was no way to change the past now, nor was there a way to thank Elena for the kindness she had shown to her so many times before. The cleric bowed her head, ushering a soft prayer to the heavens:

 

"Xan, she is within your halls now. She has done her duty and has entered your golden domain. Let her not worry for us here, for we will be fine."

"Tahariae, my Silver Stag, grant her family peace and assure their souls safety and purity. Protect them in this time from the darkness that comes our way, for this is only the beginning of what is to come." 

[Minuvas 2882]

Razad could only recall Elena as a zealot, whom started as a friend but soon was consumed by paranoia - leaping at shadows and striking at rumor to her own detriment. Her banishment was unfortunate, her death even more so should he ever learn of it. He would ponder how much better her fortunes might have been would she had chosen to work with the old magi....instead of walking the path of a fanatic. He gave it the briefest of thought, then he supposed it was ultimately better this way for everyone.