Filial Piety

Maenaki stood over the grass covered knoll, shivering against the cool breeze as it fluttered through her dress. Small braids swayed and tiny silver bells jingled through her crimson hair as tears welled up in her sea-green eyes. She pressed her painted black lips together, brow creasing as she held at bay the fountain of pain. The half-breed felt a slight burning in her lungs and - as she realized she been holding her breath - a frail gasp escaped her lips, breaking down her control.

The Seeker dropped like a stone. Her knees hit the dirt, raising her hands to cover her face and shame. She wept sorrow filled rivers and her body trembled with the force of their expulsion.

“Mommy…” she sobbed, her heart pounding so loud it seemed to compress her other organs, balling them up inside her. Maenaki’s guilt permeated the air around her, seeming to frighten the soft breeze into silence .

“I’m so sorry.” The Seeker whispered, “I never meant to let her out of my sight. I couldn’t find you and I let her die. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

She felt a cool chill across her shoulders. A spectral image of her younger half-sister had draped its bloody arms around Maenaki’s shoulders, weeping into her hair and turning to face the Seeker after realizing no tears could come forth from dead eyes. The women sat in silence, clinging desperately to each other’s presence. Although they could not touch physically, they could **feel** the emotions that burned their insides in the empathetic bond of the blood they once shared. The young Zeltron mouthed soundless words. The Sephi heard them loud and clear.

**It wasn’t your fault.**

The living and the dead collapsed against their mother’s grave and wept with the burden they bore, sorrowfully together and apart forever.