Children of the Earth

The Martyr's Fall

The Martyr's Fall

"Have you done it yet?" Vallor asked reluctantly, bile sitting there in the back of his throat.

"I was waiting for you," Enral replied evenly. The knife in her hands was fast and efficient as she moved it down the row of leeks she was cutting for her supper tonight. Only a few. The rest would be going to the kitchen.

Before she could start cooking though, there was something that had to be seen to.

Enral could have planted the bamboo into Finn last night. She probably should have. But her son had been so heartbroken at the shaman's loss that he had just stared at her as she lay in her bed. Refusing to move or even just look away. Enral had seen the desire in his face to wait. Holding onto some kind of hope that being on embassy lands would allow her to recover.

Of course it wouldn't work. Once the energy was drained dry, it was only a matter of time before all of the bodily functions began shutting down. Enral had seen it happen to elves that had allowed their pride to push them to the point of death and in each shaman that had tried to help this cursed place. This coma was a death-like sleep that Finn would never awaken from.

For Vallor though, for her son, she had postponed planting the bamboo. On embassy lands, a single day wouldn't make a difference. It often took a few days for the effects of drainage sickness to claim a life and, so long as she wasn't on Endymythalian land, she would go through the process more slowly.

It had accomplished nothing. Finn was still exactly where Vallor had left her. He claimed that there had also been a rabbit beside her, but Enral had seen no such beast. It hardly mattered now. Enral had the bamboo seeds ready at Finn's bedside.

Talen was already gone from the embassy today. Enral didn't know where he kept disappearing to during the day, nor did she care. He came back every few hours to rest and recover, but he would soon leave again. If he saw Enral, he would attempt to flirt with her. So Enral was generally quite pleased when Talen was gone.

Since he had just left, Enral knew they had a few hours before he returned. Which was just enough time to plant the seeds, make sure they took hold in Finn's body and energy, and then allow Vallor to carry her down to the basement. With the others.

Her son was directly beside her. Frowning at the ground. As though he had dearly hoped she might have done it already and at the same time was relieved that she hadn't.

Vallor didn't know what he wanted. He felt a strange mixture of numbness and anger. He wasn't even sure where the anger was directed anymore. He wasn't mad at Finn. She had only done what was natural for her kind. Even if she had ignored him at every turn. Everything she had done had been in an attempt to help him. He had even asked her to!

Maybe then he was angry at himself. For asking her. For not forcing her away. For being such a fool as to begin caring for another woman when he was still dealing with the repercussions of breaking the heart of the first one.

But the numbness that made his fingers feel foreign to his own body was keeping him confused and uncertain. Maybe he was mad at himself. Maybe he was mad at Nymira. He could probably be mad at his mother for planting the seeds. He had no real idea.

He felt sort of lost now. Directionless. Hopeless.

He thought he had been hopeless before. Even when he had asked Finn for help, he had done so knowing full well that it wouldn't accomplish anything.

Still, he had asked. Some part of him still held out the hope that she, that anyone, would be able to do something to help him.

Now...