The Shadow Tide

CHAPTER 23 - Farewell

The Royal Avenue was a tree-lined street with stone pavement, surrounded by elegant houses. At one end of the street was the Capital Palace, and at the other end was the Royal Cemetery. This was the final resting place for all members of the Pratorian royal family for the last three hundred years.

On that gray afternoon, a silent procession crossed the avenue, accompanying the carriage carrying the body of King Gavin Pratoris, the first of his name. Pratoria practiced many religions, but the main one, the one followed by the royalty, was the Tetrad, the belief that the universe was governed by four gods. None of them were inherently good or bad, as each represented elements of the world and subjective human experiences. Two gods ruled the Material Realm, while two ruled the Ethereal Realm.

Anon was the god of all inanimate matter—stone, metal, fire, air, water—all essential to life but lacking life itself. Latícia represented all that is living—animals, plants—everything organic that is born, reproduces, and dies.

In the Ethereal Realm, Fedran was the god of emotions, representing anger, love, sadness, and all subjective experiences of human existence. In contrast, Tihia represented reason, calculation, everything that is thought, studied, known as certainty — everything that simply is, without room for doubt and assumptions.

Some concepts, like death, war, and family, were represented by more than one god and sometimes by all of them. That's why in the temple of the Royal Cemetery, there was a statue of each god, each at one corner.

Tihia represented the certainty of death. Fedran represented mourning, the pain of loss. Latícia represented the end of life itself, and Anon represented the fire that would burn that body to ashes and the stone tomb where it would be buried.

Only a dozen people accompanied the king's funeral procession. Hundreds of guards had surrounded the adjacent streets to prevent the population from approaching, a far departure from tradition. That afternoon, not even the inhabitants of the houses bordering the street could watch the procession through the windows, under a strict order issued by Captain Alma Garri, head of the Royal Palace Guard. All to ensure that Arian could bid farewell to his father without the risk of another assassination attempt.

Brethen hadn't left his side for a second since he woke up that morning. Now, as she walked alongside him, always a step behind, with a hand resting on the hilt of her sword, she tried not to look at Fausto, the loyal Champion who had stood by Gavin until the moment of his death.

Brethen could only imagine that pain, not just for failing to protect him but for the death of a dear friend. Fausto and Gavin were close, despite not showing it in public, unlike how Brethen and Arian acted. The pain was visible on the shoulders of the man walking alongside the carriage carrying the king's body, following the duty to be by his side until the very last second.

Brethen also observed Margarete, the Queen Mother, who walked alongside Arian with an upright posture, elegantly dressed in mourning, despite her advanced age. Margo, as she was called by those close to her, rarely participated in social events since the death of her husband, King Salvian, twenty years ago.

A little behind, three more carriages carried the bodies of the other five killed in the brutal attack. Among the victims were two guards, a palace servant, and two ball guests, including Silas. Amina walked alongside the carriage carrying her husband's body, her head bowed. Brethen wished she could split herself in two to be with both Arian and Amina in that difficult moment. Arture walked beside their grieving friend, both of them with heads down and arms intertwined, sharing the silent weight of loss.

The small crowd following the procession was a blur of white and red, the colours of mourning in Pratoria. Even Brethen had set aside her uniform to wear a red vest over a tunic and white pants.