something had happened inside mireille, between the horror of their capturing, the shame of surrender, the crushing pain of an anxious delivery, and the losses of her sister.
and chani;
dead.
she had nursed the babes; more eyes watched, and a broad step carried mireille to overlook the seacliffs. the gravestones. 
she had not wished that they were marred in the raid.
she counted among them. she whispered their names.
she should have brought the others fallen here, and so she found erzulie's grave after kissing those grown-over old swells of earth.
tired. her energies took longer to restore, but mireille understood that this was the price of the ordeal.
and so for each grave she gathered a new bloom, and placed them in a row, heaped erzulie's resting place with more, passed her paw over that place of val's.
she paused here, lingering;
and turned her green eyes out over the sharp cliffs to the eternal sea.
tired.
a yawn; mireille nuzzled her head against the hallowed ground and folded her legs to sleep.
a while. a peaceful oblivion, for a time.
for a time.
peace did not lift.
emerald eyes did not open again.
wind flicked flowers soft into the red fur, and sun dazzled in beauty over sapphique's stilled obsidian.