Title: Remembrance
Prompt: 'rose' for
selenay_xFandom: The Tamuli
Pairing: Sephrenia/Xanetia
Rating: G
Word count: 249.
Vanion considered it a pilgrimage, this journey. She makes it every year, or perhaps two, when the Elenes are keeping her especially busy - but although he would accompany her to the very edge of the city, she has always entered Delphaeus alone.
He was right, in a way.
The city gate opens silently. Her steps are gentle down to the lake, still deserted, exactly as the day they married there on its shores. Nothing ever changes, here.
She kneels on the grass alone, watches the water. Thinks the past, of Bhelliom and Edaemus and sometimes of Aphrael, whose spirit always leaves her at the gates with a gentle sorrow very much at odds with the memory of Vanion's pain.
She thinks of Xanetia, and that's when the tears come.
This year, her hair is greying at last, and there are lines of laughter and smiles around her eyes. This year, for the first time, she can see an end, and is well pleased with the world she's leaving behind. This year, something is different.
Growing on the shore of the lake is a single, shining rose. It glows, a pale, soft blue in the failing light.
She looks up, and smiles as the light dries her tears.
"Hello, my sister."
The stars shine down on her as night falls. Soft, glowing fingertips touch her shoulder, caress her hair, and she feels the years fall away like so much darkness when Xanetia speaks from behind her.
"Hello, Sephrenia, my love."