SSO Winter Prompts 2020

14. Frozen River (Pi and Ydris)

The sun fell as witches made their way to their offering sites. The ones that felt safe went to the Silversong River. Kallters also traveled to the frozen lake to place offerings and pay respects on the winter night. As Ms. Holdsworth walked, carrying her items, she looked into the sky and saw a pair riding on a broom.

"Frozen solid already," Pi muttered, hovering at the edge of the river. Ydris didn't mind and hopped off the broom, not stepping onto the surface of the water.

"This is what you do here to remember?" he asked, watching Pi land and open her pack.

"We've done it before," she informed him, making him cast a dirty glare in the direction of Valedale. But he said nothing, looking out over the river created by grief and tears. Pi handed him one of her offerings and he carefully inspected it. In his hands was a model horse skull, carefully etched and painted with flowers. She then took out dried flowers and paper lanterns.

He waited until she had placed everything down and was ready, giving him a nod. At her signal he carefully placed the skull on the ice before them, leaning out as far as he could. Despite the thickness of the ice it cracked, although the skull was made of plaster and lightweight. Pi scattered a handful of flowers, the ice breaking under each dried petal. She lit the lanterns, placing them on the ice with Ydris along the bank, the ice shifting and breaking until the offerings began to disappear into the water below. Ydris took a seat, watching the offerings vanish one by one, reflecting. A long and ragged breath made Pi look over, surprised by Ydris rubbing his face.

"Ydris?"

"I guess the me before- who I was before- didn't do this?" he managed, voice thick.

"You are more volatile since the druids... got to you," Pi admitted. He scoffed and glared northward to Valedale once more.

"How could they do this? He was their god too! And now-" he swallowed, hard, before asking, "why didn't you invite her?"

"The old you and I talked about it," she winced when he snorted in frustration but pressed on, "but we agreed that we wouldn't want her memories to come back here. Her first memories of her life shouldn't be..." Pi trailed off and gestured to the spot where the horse skull had sunk into the water, taken by the river.

"Why not? She should know, she deserves to know what they really are! But instead she's working with them!" he barely kept from shouting, pointing an accusing finger to Valedale.

"Yes, she should know, she needs to remember, but this-" she gestured to the sea, "is exactly why she shouldn't start with this memory! I don't think this island can survive her wrath a second time!"

Ydris said nothing to that, putting his face in his hands instead as he tried to stop the tears.

"I can feel it, Pi. I can feel the tears and screams from the memories here," he admitted, eyes screwed shut and pressed into the heels of his hands.

"I know," Pi muttered, "you told me when you and I did this before. You- he said it was like witnessing something through a fog, everything murky but still there. Part of being a timeless being."

"It didn't make him like this, though," Ydris grumbled and wondered how his past self had managed it.

"His tears were his offering," she confessed.

"More tears for a river made by grief," he managed to find some twisted irony, his lips twitching, "but no better offering when mourning." He dropped his hands to his knees, opening his eyes. With a shaky breath he leaned forward, bowing on his hands and knees until his forehead just barely touched the ice. The tears dripped down onto the ice, full of pain and fury and sorrow, and the flowing water below fractured the frozen surface, taking the tears away.

Pi sat back, watching him and the frozen river. It was a night for remembering and mourning, and Ydris had much to mourn and remember.