The Land Mourneth

“You’re crying, Chris…” Indeed she was: great tears that rolled down her cheeks, her breathing roughly controlled and jilted. She looked out over the remnants of the battle, and all she could do was cry. Beside her, Riur frowned in puzzlement. “I don’t understand, no one died–”

“Someone did.”

“…You mean?” The frown deepened, but her gaze was transfixed upon that one blood-stained patch, as though the very land were shedding its lifeblood in memory.

“Is it wrong to mourn for your enemy?”

He said nothing, but she could feel the black line of his eyes. To him, all that had commenced on that day was justice; he would not regret what was lost with that one life — would not dwell on what it had once been.

“All I can think is that he was not always a monster. The stories the Orin told us about his birth, his childhood…” She felt her jaw clench involuntarily in anger, fists clenching, “So much manipulation as a boy, and yet he grew to be so strong. He was once a good man! He–” breath caught in her throat as emotion welled up, burning fingers over unhealed wounds of her own. “He was driven mad by betrayal, and for that he became our enemy, but that was not who he was; not at heart.”

Riur scowled. “I think you are looking into this too much, Chris. He–”

“No! No! I won’t hear your prejudice!” she screamed, shaking her head viciously and turning blazing eyes upon him. “There were no ‘heroes’ in this battle, Riur! There were only men who have lived different lives and chosen different paths! What do you know of his madness? His pain? What do you know of what he may have felt? How much he lost before the sheer burden ruined his very psyche? What, Riur? Because if the answer is ‘nothing’ then you may not call him ‘criminal’ and brush his life aside!” Her heart hurt, as she was sure his must have even as he performed the deeds that had branded him ‘villain’. A man did not go mad unless his very being had been shattered to pieces, and she could imagine no more horrible a fate than to lose one’s self.

Like the scars of red that branded the earth, Chris mourned.

~ by eeratka on December 13, 2007.