Elohim had made sure that I had eaten on the trip to Glorall, much to my disinterest. I had consumed the meal as a way to get him to leave me be but when we had begun the trek once more my stomach had rebelled and I had spewed it up. Then I had growled, hating the way the world had fallen down around me. I had slept for hours and in that time had dreamt of them. Of Praetor and Aithne. Of a mother's touch and a fathers love. And I had woken with a fear aching in my heart for my brother.

So much had been lost in a single day. It felt as if the sun did not shine as bright and the land was much colder without them. I know it is just me but I hate it. Hate everything I see. I am at the anger part of my grief. I press on despite the weakness I feel in my limbs; I am alive. That means I could handle it. So I do, offering scant few words to Elohim. And the moment that we enter the briny pack I take off. My nose lifts to the air and I scour Glorall. I don't care how long it takes - maybe an hour, maybe six - but I search for her. My aunt.

My heart beats a rapid staccato as I grow closer to her scent because I will have to say the words out loud again. I said them last night. To say them today would be the final nail in the coffin. But she has a right to know and if I'm being honest, I want to be around her because she is all the family I have left. It is selfish, what with Lazarus stuck in the heart of enemy territory. Enemy territory. Huh, who would have thought I'd one day consider my birth place that?

"Aunt," I gasp-whisper when I see, coming to a dead stop a few yards away. My eyes have a sort of haunted, glazed look, and I gulp to ready myself. "Aunt Vesper.... daddy and mom..." then I freeze, not because I want to but because my throat has seized up. I can't get the words past it and I shake my head slowly from side to side, tears glistening but I don't blink. I can't blink. Because if I do I think I will shatter.