Frost crept across the stiffening leaves, telling time as aptly as the angling of shadows as the sun descended. All her joints had gone stiff; the cold numbed her, making the inevitable pain of moving seem a distant, unreal thing.
Reaching out, she traced her fingers over the carving, reading with her fingertips what she could not read with her eyes. Although her hand felt little but icy stone, Dawne sensed more than simply that.
“You were greatly loved,” she said, settling back on her heels, careful not to bump the kite shield propped against the stone. “I’ve heard of you, but even without that...”
Her brow furrowed above sightless eyes; she let her train of thought lapse, waiting patiently for the words to express the swelling ache in her breast.
“Even without that,” Dawne said, now reaching for the shield, letting her fingers run down the frost-coated metal, find the gaping hole with edges that would’ve been sharp and jagged had they not been melted by a searing heat. “I think I would know how greatly you were loved. It’s there, in the aether here. Like the scent of distant flowers.”
A smile touched her face; she laid her palm flat to the shield’s surface, so cold it burned. “And you loved greatly. With all your steadfast heart. You died with that love in you, without regrets.”
Lips indented by worrying teeth, Dawne settled back on her heels, hands on her lap. A sense of kinship with the man who personified all the ideals that came with the word ‘knight’ rested comfortingly upon her, despite the low ache beneath it.
“If I never find that which I feel I’ve lost,” she said, turning her face to the headstone and smiling, “I will come back to you. I think, of all those I’ve ever met, you are the one who would understand best of all.”
Dawne spoke to empty air, to a motionless stone, a frost-clotted shield, a slowly freezing sprig of flowers. And yet, she spoke to something--someone--beyond that and felt the comfort of a kindly smile answer her.
{FFXIVWrite2019: Prompt #5 “Vault}
