Arrow Lake trauern

a pall had fallen over diaspora, and beneath it they mourned stigmata.
mahler wanted nothing more than to roam, to collect relics of his kill-brother's life, and return them to his grave, but he alone was now responsible for that which they had built here. there was to be no rest for him, not now, and after a sleepless night spent in vigil over the ironstar's burial mound, mahler brought himself with dragging steps to @Ketzia's den.
she and takiyok would suffer the most, mothers to a legacy that stigmata would never see. his jaw shuddered once; he cleared his throat and lowered himself upon the threshold of the little goddess, whispering her name into the lightening dark of early dawn.
what he would say, the gargoyle could not be sure, but for now he lay his swimming head across his forepaws, awaiting the sound of her voice.