26th Spring 516AV
Her face was blotchy and swollen from the many tears that had streamed down her cheeks over the course of the morning. The teen felt no shame in crying and so she made no attempt to hide it. It was a terrible loss and while she had managed to remain in control of herself in the intervening days since the initial deaths--probably because of shock--today the pain was too great. Waisana knew there was no reason for her to hide her grief. After all, she wasn't the only one grieving and there were too many small bodies laid out in death for there to be anyone untouched by the damage the fever had wrought. Admittedly, others might not have been quite as seriously affected as her. Her colleagues who had worked alongside her in that tent of death had been melancholic, but they were not the first patients that they'd lost. For the blonde, it had been a truly horrific and scarring experience and it wasn't likely that she'd be the same ever again.
The doctor swayed on the spot where she stood, as if she was as easily manipulated as the grasses that moved alongside her in the breeze. She cursed the pleasantness of the weather, the blue skies and scatterings of fluffy clouds at odds with the gravity of the occasion. It gave the children and others who had perished a greater view of Syna of course as she reigned in the cerulean heavens, but Waisana was having difficulty seeing any sort of silver lining in this.
Seirei and Naiya had accompanied her and they weren't alone as Drykas moved from small body to small body, reviewing the dead and leaving offerings. Some of the ones who had died had had no real family left, their pavilions decimated by the miseries that had befallen the Drykas in recent seasons. Their clans had cared for those too young to look after themselves or maintain what remained of their families and now they ensured they were treated as well as the rest. Every head was tilted slightly back so they could look upwards, blankly staring up towards the sky where Syna was now but where Leth and Zintila would reign later.
She moved from body to body, lost in a trance as she gazed on each face. She knew all of them, each set of features burned in to her memory. She could see some dying in her arms, others who she had found already dead, such little bodies. It wasn't only children who had died of course and there were faces she knew these too, those she had tended in death. There was the craftsman who had had some sort of lung rot, hacking and coughing up blood before the fever came to take advantage of his weakness. There was the doctor who had been ill before the fever came and had insisted on working despite her own condition. The faces blurred as tears clouded her vision once more but she stumbled on blindly all the same. The teen had lost the ability to think of anything beyond the dead right now and so she thought nothing of the heavily pregnant young woman that would be forced to follow along or perhaps stand and watch her in her grief. Naiya would no doubt look after her but Waisana wasn't thinking of either of them. In fact, both of them had been forgotten. When she was near them, she didn't register their presence and it would take an active effort on their parts to get her attention.
Seirei could have the babies there and then and the Opal girl probably wouldn't notice unless she screamed her lungs out. She didn't know how she must look to them, but given that only a few days previously she would have fussed over Seirei and probably ordered her back to the tent by now, the difference was no doubt very noticeable to the former captive.
The face of Aria struck her again, even though she had seen it many times already, the features locked in death. The teen dropped to her knees at the dead child's feet, bowed her head with her eyes tightly shut and began to pray with her hands clasped before her.
Please, Rak'keli, let me never fail like this again. Don't make me lose another child, please. I don't want anyone else in my care to die but if they must, please don't let it be a child.
The teen remained locked in place, praying fervently and it would take something of import to disturb her.
Her face was blotchy and swollen from the many tears that had streamed down her cheeks over the course of the morning. The teen felt no shame in crying and so she made no attempt to hide it. It was a terrible loss and while she had managed to remain in control of herself in the intervening days since the initial deaths--probably because of shock--today the pain was too great. Waisana knew there was no reason for her to hide her grief. After all, she wasn't the only one grieving and there were too many small bodies laid out in death for there to be anyone untouched by the damage the fever had wrought. Admittedly, others might not have been quite as seriously affected as her. Her colleagues who had worked alongside her in that tent of death had been melancholic, but they were not the first patients that they'd lost. For the blonde, it had been a truly horrific and scarring experience and it wasn't likely that she'd be the same ever again.
The doctor swayed on the spot where she stood, as if she was as easily manipulated as the grasses that moved alongside her in the breeze. She cursed the pleasantness of the weather, the blue skies and scatterings of fluffy clouds at odds with the gravity of the occasion. It gave the children and others who had perished a greater view of Syna of course as she reigned in the cerulean heavens, but Waisana was having difficulty seeing any sort of silver lining in this.
Seirei and Naiya had accompanied her and they weren't alone as Drykas moved from small body to small body, reviewing the dead and leaving offerings. Some of the ones who had died had had no real family left, their pavilions decimated by the miseries that had befallen the Drykas in recent seasons. Their clans had cared for those too young to look after themselves or maintain what remained of their families and now they ensured they were treated as well as the rest. Every head was tilted slightly back so they could look upwards, blankly staring up towards the sky where Syna was now but where Leth and Zintila would reign later.
She moved from body to body, lost in a trance as she gazed on each face. She knew all of them, each set of features burned in to her memory. She could see some dying in her arms, others who she had found already dead, such little bodies. It wasn't only children who had died of course and there were faces she knew these too, those she had tended in death. There was the craftsman who had had some sort of lung rot, hacking and coughing up blood before the fever came to take advantage of his weakness. There was the doctor who had been ill before the fever came and had insisted on working despite her own condition. The faces blurred as tears clouded her vision once more but she stumbled on blindly all the same. The teen had lost the ability to think of anything beyond the dead right now and so she thought nothing of the heavily pregnant young woman that would be forced to follow along or perhaps stand and watch her in her grief. Naiya would no doubt look after her but Waisana wasn't thinking of either of them. In fact, both of them had been forgotten. When she was near them, she didn't register their presence and it would take an active effort on their parts to get her attention.
Seirei could have the babies there and then and the Opal girl probably wouldn't notice unless she screamed her lungs out. She didn't know how she must look to them, but given that only a few days previously she would have fussed over Seirei and probably ordered her back to the tent by now, the difference was no doubt very noticeable to the former captive.
The face of Aria struck her again, even though she had seen it many times already, the features locked in death. The teen dropped to her knees at the dead child's feet, bowed her head with her eyes tightly shut and began to pray with her hands clasped before her.
Please, Rak'keli, let me never fail like this again. Don't make me lose another child, please. I don't want anyone else in my care to die but if they must, please don't let it be a child.
The teen remained locked in place, praying fervently and it would take something of import to disturb her.
