Stone Circle It's you, it's me, it's us

He had lost his internal sense to track time. Minutes passed like hours and hours passed like minutes. The normal, fluid flow of time had been captured in a jar, with him only able to look through the rounded glass to make sense of it.

His father was dead. Put in the ground forevermore. How he— how they all waited for this. How he still felt vastly unprepared for life moving forward. Whatever way forward was.

Through it all, Tauris came to them. Her arms extended as she offered them her love, presence, and care. He took far too long to process what she was saying. By the time he did, all of his siblings had given her some form of an answer.

He had already promised his father to care for his siblings, did he need to do it again? His heart panged at the thought, dropping low within his chest as he tried to think of where to start. His breath caught as he realized: he needed help.

His eyes met Tauris's. She meant to care for him too, for all of them. Finding his voice, he answered for himself, I promise.