The sun rapidly shifts and it is late afternoon. Beside them, another memory plays out, this one from outside herself. The echoes of Meridyn and Kelen can be seen standing in the field, now picked clean of useful remains, the bodies carried away and buried. She is waiting, packed full with the best of her family’s possessions as he bends over to calmly finish sorting out the surviving tools from the ashes of his brother’s possessions.
Don’t hate me. Please. I can’t… I just can’t stay.
He speaks without looking up, measured and matter-of-fact.
“I lost people too, Ameridyn. Everyone did. But I plan on staying right here, and making sure it never happens again.
Admit it. You’re only doing this because it’s what you always wanted to do anyway.”
She flinches and shrinks back as if struck while he gathers the final pieces. When he finishes tying off his pack with a sharp tug and straightens, she snaps out of it enough to manage a farewell.
Kelen? …I’ll see you again, someday.
He heaves a disappointed sigh and slings his pack over his shoulder before meeting her eyes.
“No. You won’t.”
He turns and walks away into the woods.
The memory fades away.
