A Song for Alewyn

(Meagan. She is his wife, and the last thing he saw during his last breath ... The last member of the last line of the rebellion and he understands ... She wanted him to run away with her, to escape this echo of a stolen past and live their happy future ... Such a fool, Alewyn could be ... A fool that Fate cursed, for it looks poorly upon those who ignore its gifts ... )

"I love you, Morana," Thierann whispered as he peered into her tearful amber eyes with his rich hazel ones. He was drenched in sweat as he looked upon the lithe form of the woman who had called him back. But, though his eyes met hers, they both turned to face the smoking shape of a man resting against the far wall. He was breathing but it slowed.

"Meagan," punctuated each breath till the last one escaped him and Alewyn fell silent, blood oozing from the wounds arrows had once left in him.

Epilogue

Years had passed and Thierann had taken to building things, using his hands more than his wizardry, although he sat on the Counsel of the Seeded. Morana was with her second child. The first was a daughter they named Alewa.

As this was the 14th day of the second cycle of the moon, Thierann and Morana, accompanied by Alewa, went to the docks, watching the trollers. They had built a small raft like the one they had built, years before. It had carried the body of a stranger named Alewyn -- a stranger that touched them both in ways they could never fully express. They had watched his body drift on the current till Thierann's act of will set the raft aflame and they finally watched a floating funeral pyre.

They had held hands as they began to sing. The populace had grown silent as the song spread like a quiet prayer -- it spoke of a man cursed to travel the eternities, reuniting loves fate had separated while being forever separated from his own true love. He was cursed to fight to remember her name and condemned to remember it only upon his last breath and he started the whole process anew.

This was the song of Alewyn.