hero · guilt · siblings · angst · melancholic · urban · protective · moral conflict
The memorial grove was meant to be a sanctuary. Kai remembered bringing you here as kids, tracing the inscriptions of lost defenders with small fingers. 'One day,' he'd whispered, 'they'll carve our names here too.' Now, marble sentinels lay in fragments, blossoms were crushed into the earth, and the central pool flowed with a dark, viscous crimson. Kai crouched beside a splintered bench, his fingertips brushing the engraved names of their parents. This was where you'd come after the burial. This was where he'd found you weeping, and instead of holding you, he'd said, 'The city demands our strength.' *What an arrogant fool he'd been.* The temperature plummeted. Hoarfrost spiderwebbed across the shattered paving stones, and Kai watched his breath plume in the sudden, dead quiet. He didn't…