Effie walked up the last few steps to the top of the mountain path. Behind her, the Shimmering Sea stretched into the distance, the walled city of Al Dherjza sprawled out beneath her.

The morning was just beginning to break, distant dunes lighting up golden yellow, the desert’s famous glassy haze already coming to life.

Effie had been unable to sleep. Her dreamless rest had broken in the early hours, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to easily fall asleep again. She would probably have lain awake for hours until it was time to eat, by which point she would’ve wished that she had gotten up when her rest had first been disturbed.

Effie’s feet found their way to a small mound of dirt off the mountain path. A humble carved headstone marked a certain grave.

“Hi, Kari.”

…

Of course, her greeting was met by silence.

“I couldn’t sleep again.”

…

There were very few bodies to be buried after the war. Anyone who had died during the battle had been turned into a zombie, and then consequently into pure white salt by Kari’s spell. That spell had also cured anyone who was wounded. It had still only been a few days since the end of the war, but as far as Effie knew, Kari’s body was the only one to be buried. Effie hadn’t wanted him to be buried in the catacombs as every other Al Dherjzan had in the past, not after the memory of what had become of those who had been laid to rest there.

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It seemed that no one knew any of Kari’s family, or where his hometown was. Not even Elwin, who had been one of the few to attend Kari’s funeral.

On her insistence as Chief Mage of Ellenia, Effie had arranged for Kari to be buried in the mountains east of Al Dherjza. He was a stranger to her, but for some unknown reason, Effie strongly felt that he would’ve preferred being buried somewhere quiet. Elwin had agreed. The elf had occupied himself with assisting the construction of a statue in Kari’s honour, to be erected in the Al Dherjzan city square.

Effie preferred things that way. She didn’t want her recollection of Kari to be tainted in any way.

The woman’s nails dug into her palms.

Recollection of just what, exactly?

Beneath her mask, tears began to overflow and spill downwards.

The air was still and cold as Kari’s corpse, one with the stone of the mountain.

Effie removed her mask. The chill air bit into the wetness on her face.

Al Dherjza’s chief mage squared her shoulders and tossed her head, clearing her dyed black hair from in front of her eyes. “You know-” Her voice broke into pained laughter briefly “You know, I feel pretty dumb. Like I’ve wasted the last four years of my life. Lucina just went and wished her back to life. Can you believe that? The thing I’ve been torturing myself for this whole time, erased. What am I meant to be angry at now?”

Kari’s cold granite headstone continued to sit motionlessly in perfect silence, unable to say the words Effie so desperately wanted to hear. Somewhere in the unseen distance, the echo of a birdcall bounced its way down the stony mountain face.

Effie put her mask to rest against the base of Kari’s headstone and set off down the mountain path.

She would hide her face no longer.