Rain fills the heavy silence over Logtown as it showers the settlement. Pockets of buildings lay in shambles from the unusual lightning storm that ravaged the town. However, the Combined Church of Ludwig and Naiomi stands unscathed, not even the rain has painted the floor wet. A translucent dome shields refugees and members of the church from the rain and passing storm.

Maria stands at the top of the stairs, looking out at the battered town. Yui and Alden stand beside her.

“It’s a poor day for rain,” says Maria.

Yui blows out a ring of smoke. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”

She shakes her head. “Not this kind of rain.”

“Look, someone’s approaching”, points out Alden as he rushes to the garden entrance.

In the distance, a shadowy figure appears from the wet fog. It staggers its way closer to the church, swaying left and right, looking like it’s about to fall over any second. The figure’s outline is too wide to only be one person. Alden pushes past the crowd that has gathered to witness the arrival of the survivor.

He covers his mouth. His voice cuts through his esophagus. “No...”

He watches Leor make his way through the barrier, but his attention is glued to the covered body in his arms. Leor’s head sinks into his shoulders, avoiding Alden’s gaze. Alden reaches for the covers, but he stops himself midway. Part of him wants to confirm it, but he already knows what’s underneath. Regardless, Leor angles his body away and doesn’t say a word. He simply shakes his head and continues to walk towards the church with Alden following close behind. They meet Maria and Yui at the top. The women seem to already understand what happened as soon as Leor appeared through the barrier alone.

Maria walks over to Leor and provides a firm grip on his shoulder and a sturdy, yet comforting voice to match. “Come, let’s prepare a farewell.”

Leor hides his eyes beneath his dripping bangs and nods silently. They move into the church. Everywhere they go, everything he sees reminds him of Ceri. The very room that she dragged him through yesterday taunts him, reminding him how he couldn’t bring her back safely as she did for him. He clams his eyes shut and shakes his head, attempting to give his mind a moment of freedom from the hollow stares, but even with his eyes shut, he cannot escape that lifeless gaze.

They stop underneath Ludwig’s statue and Maria whispers a chant to herself, causing the floor to spiral downward. A howling wind crawls out from the chamber below. Maria leads them down the seemingly endless dark stairway that reminded Leor of his dream in the woods. With each step, green eyes emerge from the darkness and stare through him, adding to the knot in his stomach.

As they reach the base, specks of light float past them like golden dandelions, all of which come from a single source of light at the end of a blacked-out hallway. But their movements are too irregular to be simple floating particles; it moves as if it were inspecting them. As if it’s alive.

The golden light consumes Leor as they pass through the doorway. Now, it’s clear; the similarities are too uncanny to be considered a coincidence. The welcoming light at the end of a dark passage. The emptiness from the void before. The looming green eyes. All of it; The dream took place here.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Once his vision returns from being blinded, a surprise hits him in the face. A field of green, larger than the church’s garden above, expands farther than his eyes can see.

“How far did we walk?”, he asks himself, but his question is quickly replaced with another when he notices a massive tree towering over the rows of green pastures. The size of the tree, in itself, is gigantic. It’s probably the largest structure, man-made or natural, Leor’s ever seen. So large, in fact, that he can’t even see the peak. However, it’s not just the size that drops his jaw. The translucent roots, branches, and even the leaves emit a bright yellow glow, which sprinkles the golden particles into the air, almost mimicking how snow falls from leaves when it gets too heavy.

He gawks at the landscape and wonders how such a massive space hides underneath the church. It’s like an entirely different world, absent of humanity, and feels like the manifestation of tranquility. Silent.

//I’m sure she would’ve liked to see this... //

“Come, Leor. They’re waiting for us,” says Alden as he walks towards Maria and Yui who stand atop a partially crumbled stone platform with an altar in the middle; beside it is a moss-covered podium and a book on top of it with pages that look like they could turn to dust any minute.

“Leor, please place Ceri onto the altar,” says Maria, standing behind the podium.

Leor’s grip tightens around Ceri and his foot inches back. Something about the altar is off, and the voice in his head tells him not to. Or rather, that’s what he tells himself. In actuality, he’s afraid. He knows what comes next. He knows that once he places her down, that’ll be it. She’ll be gone, for good.

Alden places one hand gently on Leor’s shoulder and the other over the covers. He gives him a half-sorrowful, half comforting look as if reading his mind.

“It's okay,'' mutters Alden. “This is what she would’ve wanted…”

Those words tear through Leor’s rationale. Part of him thinks it unfair for Alden to use such logic but at the same time, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is to give her all she hoped for. It’s the least he could do. He gently lays her body onto the altar, treating her with the most delicate touch as if she were made up of glass, and keeps her hand clasped into his.

“Thank you, Leor. We shall bury her under the Soul Tree” says Maria before flipping through the ancient text. She stops on a blank page and calls Alden over. Taking turns pricking their fingers, both of them transcribe some kind of runic symbol with their blood and then turn their wrist. The green fields begin to rumble and shuffle out of the way to form a single open path to the Soul Tree. Once the plates of earth stop, the platform shifts forward, grinding against the paved floor.

Upon closer inspection, smaller variants of the Soul Tree occupy each pocket of land, and beneath them are rows of tombstones. Some are simple crosses, while others have dedicated statues of the assumed deceased. As they approach closer to the Soul Tree, the variants and the statues grow in size, and the glowing particles pollute the air. A couple of them dance around Leor. He reaches to grab one, but his hand is quickly yanked down.

“Don’t touch them,” says Alden. “Do not disturb random Souls Particles. They only wish to know if their time has come.”

The jargon only confuses him more and he breaks his silence. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Soul particles? Soul Tree? What is this place and what are you planning on doing with her!?” snaps Leor. He positions himself, preparing to snatch Ceri off of the altar if the answer did not suffice.

“We are at the resting grounds for those who have left this world behind,” says Maria with a thousand-yard stare. “We bury those whose faith falls in line with our own. Lord Ludwig, being the most generous of Gods, offers sanction for most people. Other Gods… not so much”. Maria points to the largest of the Soul Trees. “Out of respect for Alden’s disciple, we’re going to lay her there.”

“That doesn’t answer anything!” shouts Leor. “Why here? Why not a normal grave? And what the hell are these floating things?”

“Relax, Leor,” says Yui. “Being buried in this place, the Domain of Eternity, is a dream for many. Maybe not for you. But, people who are buried here are blessed by the Soul Tree and turned into these ‘Soul Particles’ or where I’m from, ‘Soul Fairies’. Lord Ludwig implemented this ideology soon after the Great Calamity. “A better place to rest for all of eternity” is the most common phrase passed down from Lord Ludwig, supposedly.”

Leor stares through Yui. His confused expression deepens with her explanation, but he glances at Ceri and repeats Ludwig’s phrase to himself. He can picture Ceri saying something similar to him if he was able to ask her.

He nods his head. “Very well. If this is what she wants, so be it.”