The Boarding House
Last Rites
“Lady Skalett, I’m sorry, we did all we could but the power of the Mythicals rejected all our help and Sir Javrhon’s body was just too weak to heal itself. I’m ever so sorry.” I could read his mind, should he do something more? I saw his hand rise as if to place it on my shoulder but he stopped halfway and lowered it again. I saw all this and heard everything but nothing registered. My brother…my twin…was…no, no I couldn’t say it, couldn’t even think it. He was supposed to be the stronger one; he was supposed to protect me!
My face an expressionless mask, my pace steady, my eyes hard, my lips closed. I let nothing away, not even a extremely powerful telepathic could have penetrated my brain then, it wasn’t possible. My hand stayed steady as I pushed the door open. A pretty nurse was just unhooking my brother from the machine that monitored his heart rate, I was just glad that I hadn’t heard the consistent beep. She dipped and scampered out of the room quickly. I stopped at the end of the operating table. My brother lay out before me. A white sheet hiding his body up to his chest but I knew that they had removed his top and cut away half of one of his trouser legs. There was a deep gash in his chest where they had made the incision to try and save his internal organs. My throat closed as the tears swelled. I walked up the bed, running my hand over my brother until I reached the wound. Closing it myself and cleansing his body and performing the burial rites of our race.
I was halfway through when I heard my parent’s voices, they were still far away but they felt my pain and helped. The rest of the world felt the pain as well and everywhere in the dimension the races mourned for my brother. Tears were streaming down my cheeks when I finished all that could be done above ground. My brother needed to be buried before the sun set this day or his soul would wander the dimensions until a necromancer installed it into a corpse and used the power for their own purposes.
“We will help.” the voices of the other two Mythicals sailed to my brain quietly. I looked back at them, saw the pain etched into their faces and nodded. Together we transported my brother to our homeland, burying him deep within the earth and sealing the grave with blood from a phoenix and a dragon. My parents met us there as did the other Mythicals, all above the age of conceiving. Together we raised our voices high in a lament that all the dimensions felt. It was a terrible loss to everyone; Mythicals were so rare and kept the balance between light and dark in the galaxies. It had been said that my brother and I would probably have had to reproduce together, a sickening thought but the only easy way forward. There was another, converting an extremely powerful being to a Mythical, it was no easy task and had only been achieved once, long before my time. Now, it was the only way.
“Skalett, come.” My father said, holding my mother’s waist tightly as she cried silently. I nodded, the tears falling as I stayed silent. We walked through the gap that the other Mythicals had made for us, each one sending out their condolences and shielding their grief from us. My mother detached herself from my father and ran to our home; I saw my aunt follow her and stepped closer to my father. He carried on walking, taking me to the gardens.
“Skalett, I do not know how hard this is for you. Your mother and I both know how close you and Javrhon were and we wish we could have been around you more. I wish we could have been there instead, that you hadn’t have had to start the rites on your own and a whole lot more. But it is as it is. Javrhon is dead and now we must all look to you to continue the race,” My father told me in a hushed tone. I nodded, not trusting my voice and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “This is such a heavy burden we must place on you, but there really is no other way. All of us are far too old to conceive…we had hoped that with Javrhon our hopes may have been doubled-”
“Dad…stop, please.” I whispered. Every time he mentioned my brother’s name my soul shattered into yet another million tiny pieces. If I dwelled on the matter too much any more, I would lose control and that would be that. My father turned and walked away. I’m not too sure why, maybe he thought I needed privacy, which I suppose I did. But more than that, I needed Javrhon.
My face an expressionless mask, my pace steady, my eyes hard, my lips closed. I let nothing away, not even a extremely powerful telepathic could have penetrated my brain then, it wasn’t possible. My hand stayed steady as I pushed the door open. A pretty nurse was just unhooking my brother from the machine that monitored his heart rate, I was just glad that I hadn’t heard the consistent beep. She dipped and scampered out of the room quickly. I stopped at the end of the operating table. My brother lay out before me. A white sheet hiding his body up to his chest but I knew that they had removed his top and cut away half of one of his trouser legs. There was a deep gash in his chest where they had made the incision to try and save his internal organs. My throat closed as the tears swelled. I walked up the bed, running my hand over my brother until I reached the wound. Closing it myself and cleansing his body and performing the burial rites of our race.
I was halfway through when I heard my parent’s voices, they were still far away but they felt my pain and helped. The rest of the world felt the pain as well and everywhere in the dimension the races mourned for my brother. Tears were streaming down my cheeks when I finished all that could be done above ground. My brother needed to be buried before the sun set this day or his soul would wander the dimensions until a necromancer installed it into a corpse and used the power for their own purposes.
“We will help.” the voices of the other two Mythicals sailed to my brain quietly. I looked back at them, saw the pain etched into their faces and nodded. Together we transported my brother to our homeland, burying him deep within the earth and sealing the grave with blood from a phoenix and a dragon. My parents met us there as did the other Mythicals, all above the age of conceiving. Together we raised our voices high in a lament that all the dimensions felt. It was a terrible loss to everyone; Mythicals were so rare and kept the balance between light and dark in the galaxies. It had been said that my brother and I would probably have had to reproduce together, a sickening thought but the only easy way forward. There was another, converting an extremely powerful being to a Mythical, it was no easy task and had only been achieved once, long before my time. Now, it was the only way.
“Skalett, come.” My father said, holding my mother’s waist tightly as she cried silently. I nodded, the tears falling as I stayed silent. We walked through the gap that the other Mythicals had made for us, each one sending out their condolences and shielding their grief from us. My mother detached herself from my father and ran to our home; I saw my aunt follow her and stepped closer to my father. He carried on walking, taking me to the gardens.
“Skalett, I do not know how hard this is for you. Your mother and I both know how close you and Javrhon were and we wish we could have been around you more. I wish we could have been there instead, that you hadn’t have had to start the rites on your own and a whole lot more. But it is as it is. Javrhon is dead and now we must all look to you to continue the race,” My father told me in a hushed tone. I nodded, not trusting my voice and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “This is such a heavy burden we must place on you, but there really is no other way. All of us are far too old to conceive…we had hoped that with Javrhon our hopes may have been doubled-”
“Dad…stop, please.” I whispered. Every time he mentioned my brother’s name my soul shattered into yet another million tiny pieces. If I dwelled on the matter too much any more, I would lose control and that would be that. My father turned and walked away. I’m not too sure why, maybe he thought I needed privacy, which I suppose I did. But more than that, I needed Javrhon.