Starlight of a Moonbeam

Blood of Sand, Four - Age 17 (Elena POV)

It was decided that we should remove the bodies from the courtyard as soon as possible. The noise must have been heard, and we didn't want to be here when the crowds started pilling in. So we gathered up our purchases, bags, and bodies, and headed for the backs of the stables.

Kneeling in the dirt, sand, and gods know what else, I wedge the borrowed shovel into the ground for the one-hundredth time, widening the hole for the fourth body. Digging alongside me is Ralin, Lierena working a few feet away on another grave, with the bags of our goods in a heap behind us.

After a rushed discussion, we came to the conclusion that we should split up with the bodies to bury them in different locations and attract less attention. Lie said that she knew a place we could go behind the stables where the horse dung gets shoveled, while the boys drag the three remaining bodies to the cities trash cite.

The shake in my bones refused to leave me for the first ten minutes, after which I was able to calm down more, but this is a whole new feeling that I'm unaccustomed to. As soon as those hooded people came through the alleys for us, all of my parent's, and Aunt's and Uncle's training kicked into me. All of their words of advice and caution finally clicked into my head, and I was able to understand, really understand their fear in leaving me abandoned from their protection.

But I'm ok. I survived. I'm alive. I whisper in my head.

I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive.

I'm not sure why exactly. Maybe to reassure me or to soothe my magic's thrum, but I do. Sending the message deep inside me like a tether of life and light I let it fly. And then...It's so quiet, so far off that I'm sure I'm imagining it, but its almost as if I can hear a response in turn. A response of knee-buckling relief, petrified concern, and far off love.

With a great heave, I push up from my legs and dump the dirt off my shovel and into the pile I've made. The hole looks about to be big enough, so I stand up and make my way toward the bodies. Lying on the sand, once under the others and now exposed to the truth, is the man I killed. The first kill, I realize. But with no promise of him being the last.

Smelling the scent of Ralin, amongst other things, I look over to see her standing beside me, staring down at the man. "Come on," She says, the first words in what feels like years, "we'll do it together."

Side-by-side we lift his corpse up from the others and carry it over to the hole we've made. Together we lay him in the ground, together we let him slip from our fingers, together we close his blue eyes, and begin to cover him with dirt.

Lierena finishing up her burial moves over to us, and we three work side-by-side to cover up the truth. I can smell the scent of pain amongst them. Physical and emotional, and I know it's not from the kills we made today. Whether or not this has been their first kills as it has been mine, I can see both their hands shaking along with mine.

I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the looks on their faces when they beheld the empty fountain. The water magically evaporated and steamed away before their eyes as my magic broke free for the first time in months. The look of hurt, the pain and ache in their eyes as they were shown the truth. But not in shock. No. There was no confusion or realization in their eyes.

"How long have you known." I have to ask. This may not be the right time, but it's something I need to know.

Neither one of them responds right away, but when they do its not Lierena like I would expect, but Ralin. "It's not hard to see. And it's not hard to imagine a reason either. The only thing I don't understand is why here? Why us?"

"It's about as far from home as you can go on this continent. One of the most distant places we could go and still be relatively safe." I answer, not really looking at either one of them. Gods know they probably can't stand the sight of me.