The End of Mother
Keladrae ached to the bone and also felt empty. Months passed and nothing could take away the memory of what had come to pass. She couldn’t bring herself to go into the nursery, or look at the beautiful fountain that still danced at her bedside table. She sat in her chair by the fire, lonely in her room. Just her breath and the cracking of burning wood filled the room. She wished it did not.
Were it not for Dani, she would have ended herself long ago. Dani needed her more than ever now. But Dani would come home to no baby brother to love, as Kel had hoped she would. They had won, and the final piece of her lover gone. The enemy danced and drank to the death of a child while his mother now grieved far away in the woods of her beloved country that she fought for.
Kel sat in her chair, letters half finished and scattered on the floor. After a long time of being away, who could she call on when they most likely thought her dead too. They had warned her. Azuriann had told her to stay away from Keto. This was the price paid and she was left penny less twice over. Even after years of the man being dead, they had hunted the child too. She was too complacent and she paid that price too.
Kel reaches a hand into the stacked wood and tossed a log into the flames. If she built up this fire, would it finally take her too?
No, Dani needed her. She would not loose Dani too. Instead, she sat on the cold stone floor and stirred the flames.
Maybe one day she would find the courage to go back to her duties. But today was not that day. She was still dead and empty inside.