Pure

Finten knew that Devlyn was following him. Conall had taken Maigred’s instructions seriously and he hadn’t been left alone for a moment since earlier that afternoon. Finten didn’t blame Conall. He’d been useless for the rest of the day.

They had taken Ehir out and buried him before Hadeaon or Alive could get their hands on his body. Then they had gotten back to work.

It was still up to Finten to look to the safety and upkeep of the town. Hadeaon had no interest in anything that didn’t require him to dress up and look impressive, or to be catered to. If they were starting or finishing a new building project, Hadeaon would be there to take credit, but he was never around to make sure things were taken care of properly.

Finten hadn’t been much help to his men today though. They seemed to be eager to get back to work, it probably helped distract them from the fact that they had just lost one of their number, but it had taken everything in Finten to contain his rage.

Ehir hadn’t deserved to die that way.

He had been a good man. Loyal to the land, loyal to the people. He had stayed to help Finten when he could have left, he had nothing to hold him to this land. Ehir could have easily found another tarasque lord to serve, but he hadn’t. He’d stayed, and his loyalty had been repaid with pain and suffering and finally the loss of balance. His fire and wind nature had overtaken him and pulled him towards destruction. Even then he’d asked Finten to end him before he could hurt anyone.

Finten’s hand found the stone that hung from a cord around his neck. He squeezed it. I’m sorry Caevah.

He passed through the city gate and followed the worn path to the sacred grove. It was a clear night, the stars shone brightly in the night sky. It would have been a good night for roaming the wilds.

His mind wandered towards Maigred. I wonder how often she comes down here? When he had seen her coming through the door that afternoon, unsheathing her knife he had been surprised to feel relief instead of fear for her. He had been glad it was her coming to his rescue.

Finten stopped outside the grove and stared into the trees. He’d escorted Caevah down here many times, but he hadn’t ever gone in with her.

He took a breath and walked into the grove.

Devlyn stopped at the edge of the tree line. “Finten?” He called softly.

Finten didn’t answer him. He continued on towards the center, where he knew a spring was located. There was thick grass growing around the spring. Finten hesitated another moment before walking through the grass to the water’s edge. He knelt down. The knees of his pants immediately went damp from the dew in the grass.

There was something incredibly soothing about being here alone, surrounded only by the quiet sounds of nature. Finten let out a breath and felt his shoulders relax.

“Earth sister, I’m sorry if I shouldn’t be here. I just…I don’t know what to do. I’ve been holding on and, and I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”

He bowed his head. The spring bubbled. The crickets chirped.

“I lost one of my men today. He was a good man.” His anger turned into sorrow and began leaking down his cheeks. Finten reached up and clutched at the stone that Caevah had given him on their wedding day so many years ago. She had always been the one to help him release his anger in tears instead of violence.

He leaned into his sorrow and allowed it to cleanse him of his anger. He didn’t feel bad about letting his emotions out so loudly, Caevah had never been afraid of them, so Finten figured that the earth sister wouldn’t mind either.

When his sobbing finally calmed his anger had quieted, but he still felt afraid. “Earth sister, will I lose more of my brothers? Will I lose myself? It would be better for me to die now than to be the one who causes destruction on my people and land.”

He waited, but he didn’t get any reply. He hadn’t expected one, the earth sister spoke to hearth maidens, not tarasques.

“Thank you for your sending me your waters to calm me, earth sister.” He began to get up, then remembered, Caevah always brought stones to gift to the earth sister. “I’m sorry, I forgot to bring you a gift. I’ll come back…if that’s okay.”