Grim Ruination, Birth of a Soul (On Hiatus)

The Aftermath

It took many hours for the carnage of the gnoll raid to subside. Most of the buildings had been completely ransacked or simply demolished. Nearly half of the civilians had been murdered along with all the town guards, however their numbers were few to begin with.

The sun rose to the sight of a half ruined town with corpses lining it's streets. Once the gnolls were either killed or fled, the citizens came out of their shelters, most of which with injuries of varying degrees.

Darris had soon reconvined with Gregory and Susain as they began giving aid to the injured. After a bit of guidance through Susain, Darris began using his souls, in substitute for mana, to heal the wounded. Although, even with the souls of the gnolls he'd killed and Dax, a fellow reaper, he couldn't heal the more severe wounds such as shattered bone and dismembered limbs, no matter how much he tried. The best he could do was close the major wounds.

"Is there anything that I could possibly help with?" An elderly but stern voice rang out as Susain was just finishing  wrapping a bandage around someone's injured shoulder.

Her head turned as she jumped up in surprise to see a woman wearing the royal colors of house Grimhul. "Yana," She shouted before running and hugging the mage.

"Where were-" Susain was cut off as another thought flashed in her mind. She unwrapped her arms from around Yanavik's back and took a step back to look into her eyes. "Where's dad?" She asked with a new worried expression. Her eyes began to glisten in the sunrise as tears began to gravitate towards her eyes.

Yanavik opened her mouth to speak before reading Susain's expression and frowning. She glanced down at Susain's feet before glancing up to meet her tearful eyes. "Your father..." She began as her eyes began to glisten with tears as well. "He was dead when I found him. Gnolls killed him." She said before putting a hand on Susain's cheek as tears now began flowing endlessly from her eyes.

Susain was speechless as her vision became blurred from tears. Her kind facade broke down, revealing nothing but stress, fear, and now, sorrow as she stepped forward and sobbed into Yanavik's chest.

Yanavik quickly cast her arms around Susain and began caressing her back in a futile attempt to comfort her. "I'm sorry child. I wasn't fast enough to save him. Blame me for the fault." She said softly.

Yanavik heard running footsteps near her and turned to see a large man with an ax strapped to his back. He bore the same sorrowful expression Susain had, although his features were much more hardened.

Gregory's body tensed as he glanced at Yanavik's regretful face, then to the figure of his sister crying in her arms. He hung his head, glancing down, as his body relaxed in acceptance.
Keeping his head low he walked over to Yanavik and simply set his forehead against her shoulder as he forced his eyes shut. Regardless, tears still fell from his face.

He recalled a similar event when he was younger, much younger. He saw himself as a small child, no older than 10, in the same position. Everytime he felt like crying he searched for Yanavik before simply resting his forehead on her and letting his tears flow.

It had been so many years since he'd done it, not since the death of his mother. His mind had been so hardened that he never cried, or much less felt despair, about any mundane thing. But losing his father let his hardened facade break as hundreds of thoughts boiled to the surface and spilled out in the form of tears.

Gregory bit his lip to keep himself from wailing out. He clenched his fist as hard as he could to keep himself from collapsing. But nonetheless his body shivered as tears began to fall from his face. Finally, he took a step forward and wrapped his arms around both Yanavik and Susain.
Susain glanced up to her brother. Their teary eyes met for a brief moment before they moved their arms to embrace each other.