Roads to the Next Life

As Alexis gave her eulogy for the fallen Hendrick, Islana wiped a tear from her eye. She didn’t know the man well but enough to know he was a good man: enough he had helped her, more than once. The young huntress considered him to be one of those people that given the right push, in the correct direction; they might have been better friends.

When the eulogy ended, the young woman half expected Alexis to say something about Jiyn. When the other woman didn’t, it also wasn’t a surprise, as it was likely that Alexis had just known Hendrick better.

Islana tried to think back to her brother’s funeral, what had been done then the rituals, not the words. She, also, took a handful of dirt and threw it on the fire. Wishing, in part, it was spring so flowers could be placed there after the fire burned down.

The young woman took a breath and started to speak but words were escaping her, she was friends with Jiyn, good friends but truthfully they hadn’t known each other that long. How did she do this? What would she even say?

Taking another breath, Islana tried again. “I didn’t know Jiyn long but we became friends quickly.” Thinking back on what the young soldier had told her before his death. “He was the type to not give up on a cause. To try to see things out to the end. The kind to help make sense of what does not.”

A tear fell from her cheek onto the fire. “I do not know what kind of soldier he was but I could imagine Jiyn throwing himself in, full-on, for those things that were worthy of such a feat He had a good ear for listening, a good shoulder for support, and a good hand to help.” In the proverbial sense, she didn’t have to say, it was understood. “Friendships like Jiyn’s are rare and precious in this world. I will carry that with me always.”

She threw the salt on, adding. “May you find the happiness you deserved in this life, in the next. May you be a welcomed guest of Zin. May the roads you have traveled lead you to peace.”

That last part was something the young woman had recalled from her brother’s funeral, it was something that was said where she had come from. She stood, and took a breath, and tried not to let the tears flow but was unsure how much longer that could last.