Ouroboros Spine siunnurak ⌽

"this is the place of your birth. you can always return home, my daughter," moonmother murmured, raising gentle hand to asivaq's strained face, now at last releasing its tension into the young and lovely lines they had held before.

she wanted to ask if kigipigak had sung, then chided herself for considering even a moment the possibility he had not. he would not have allowed his wife to be alone in her grief, no matter the stark gradient between his people and her own. kukutux had accepted the winterhawk over and over, and even now despite the thrum of her anger, it came; a seeping, reluctant forgiveness. "you sang. the sunshine ancestors will welcome him," mothervoice assured, even as heart churned ice along its corners to think that she lied.

"bring things to my ulaq that would have pleased him as a child. toys you meant for him. furs upon which he lay. anything that holds a piece of his spirit, we will sing these all to sedna."

her eyes veiled again with salt; she looked down with a steadying breath, then upward once more with a slow and gentle look. "he is not alone. he is with your sea-sister and the little cousin who went with her mother to the dancing lights."