Chapter-XVI

Jinn's face was white and gaunt. Her skin was veined with black and her ears were rotting.

Twyll was stock still.

Her aunt looked old.

When Jenny's face was revealed, Karsyn broke into more tears until all that came out were choked sobs. Shalom held onto her and kept his face stoic.

Trystan was white as a sheet. His mouth was open and a strangled sound came out. Twyll avoided eye contact with everyone.

The cremator came out to start the cremation. He dabbed his finger in a bowl of blue coloured paste, Arthrospira it was called and applied it onto the bodies. He carefully turned them over and called for Twyll and Karsyn to step out and start the runes.

Twyll took shaky steps to the pyre where Jinn was laid. She picked up the brush and dipped it into the inkpot. She then dragged the brush in sweeping concentric circles. Every stroke was like a personal dagger in her heart as her Aunt's back was decorated with her words. Every whorl of ink conveyed her confused and distraught feelings as she allowed herself to let go. The meticulous movements were meant to help the freeing of them from our mind and body. Let their memories be an ever-present spark and not a being over our conscience.

Karsyn felt the tears running down her face. Her hands shook as she desperately clung to the last pieces of her daughter that were forever engraved in her heart. She felt Shalom come up behind her and steady her hand. Felt his synergies around her. She could feel the breaking of Twyll's mind. Could sense Trystan's numbness, Bren's sorrow, Cadence's lost hope and Kyan's failure. She felt it all. All of too much. She felt and she sensed and she felt.

Shalom felt their bond go still. Felt the thread go limp, it's tautness nonexistent. He saw the red ink sinking into his only daughter's back. He could feel her leaving this convoluted and damaged world and going to a better place. A place that was not ravaged with slaughter, grief, deceit and manipulation.

Twyll dropped her quill onto the ground when she could hold onto it no more. The ink splattered across the marble floor like fresh blood rolling to stop at the edge of the platform on which they were sitting.

She dropped to the floor, Karsyn mimicking her movements and begin the chants.

Let the rivers flow where they must.

Laugh for the souls set free.

Cry for the memories yet made

Smile for the memories forged.

Let go for the sake of letting go

And so will it be forevermore.

Twyll's raspy voice and the fervour in her tone left no dry eye in the room. Trystan eyed her with the intensity of the sun. His eyes were filled with empathy and disbelief. Empathy because he understood the cost of holding on and disbelief that he could let go. For Jenny.

The creator came up to the pyres and slowly turned over the bodies. He sprinkled sage leaves and lavenders with a little bit of thyme to reduce the stench of smoke. He slowly walked up to the centre of the platform and chanted in a quiet voice:

Though they are gone, grieve them not with tears.

Think not of death with sorrowing;

Let them souls take the path never taken before;

Let the ashes swirl against forever winds and glide away far into the twilight. Let them mix into the night air and travel to the edge and start anew.

Let the sun, set along with them and let them start a new dawn.

And so will it be forevermore.

The priest walked back to the corpses and slowly covered their faces again with the sheets.

Two undertakers came up to the podium and lit two torches. The smell of kerosene was strong in the air.

A panorama of images crossed Twyll's mind as she walked up to the torches. She lifted one and an image of her aunt kissing her good night when she was pretending to be asleep hit her. As she walked up to the pyre another one of her aunt cleaning her wounds while admonishing her about being clumsy assaulted her.

Every step she took was a new remembrance of every moment in her life where her aunt had shown Twyll that she loved her. Loved her like a mother would love her child. Jinn was the only mother and father that she had. The knowledge that she was the only Merrick left her shook with u certainty and fear. She watched as the flames slowly licked over the wood, obscuring her aunt behind a curtain of moving orange. Meanwhile, Jenny's body was also lit. Karsyn's wails echoed throughout the halls, bouncing off of the bare walls. Trystan turned his gaze away from the proof of Jenny's nonexistence and Kyan had his eyes trained on the burning wood as if he couldn't look away.

Twyll felt her blood coursing through her veins. Her aunt's last words rang through her brain:

"Go, right now! You must flee Rhodesïa and find Starr Freesia. She is the only one who can answer all your questions."

Starr Freesia. Who could she be?

Twyll couldn't process all of it as she watched her aunt's corpse slowly but surely char and deteriorate until all that was left were burning embers and a pile of steaming ash.

By this time Cadence and Bren had put their arms around her while Trystan was holding Karsyn up along with Shalom and Kyan was just quiet. Deathly quiet.

The seconds ticked by slowly as the creator and the undertakers slowly collected all the ashes. The only remains of her aunt and Karsyn's little girl. She felt the walls of the mausoleum closing in on her, the large space felt stuffing and a faint smell of burnt flesh and hair lingered mixed the scent of lavender and sage which was a vaguely unpleasant mixture. Soon enough the remaining ashes were swept up as though they were nothing but the dust under someone's feet and the collected remains were contained in elaborate bronze urbs as a keepsake or to be spread across a spot of meaning. The entire thing was detached and mildly annoying, like a business transaction. Which it was, but it still unsettled her. They quickly wrapped it all up when she heard a gruff voice that sent chills down her spine.

"Well, well. Looks like you have been busy."

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