Broken Antler Fen We can just watch the whole world disappear

wanted to get this up <3 Im a mess but this was cathartic. Ilu

Just when Maia thought she didn't have any more tears left in her, more would come.  She'd had to hear the news secondhand; she couldn't leave the pups for a while yet.  But when the calls went up, something inside Maia died the instant she understood and the meaning sunk in.

Wraen was gone and Maia hadn't gotten the chance to say goodbye.  She'd convinced herself so much that everything was fine, and been so set on denying it could even happen... and now between Eljay, and the kids, she suddenly felt like she'd barely seen Wraen at all.

That realization set her off into even worse, broken sobs.  It was impossible that, right now, the world wasn't ending with this.  How did it go on without her?  It didn't have the right to, not when it took her like that, right when Maia had thought that she had everything she ever could have wanted.  She was so stupid.  This was so stupid.  Everything was...

Wraen...

Maia curled up into a tighter ball, pulling Sylvie and Hymnal in closer while she tried to stop shaking.  They'd never get to meet her.  Maia had been so excited to show... no.  This wasn't happening.  This couldn't be happening.

But time kept going, and she kept breathing, and the pups at her side did too.  It didn't seem to matter that her world had ended because this one didn't seem to care.  No more stories, no more late night conversations, no more reminiscing or laughter or travels.  No more anything.

Maia had thought, when she lost her parents, she had learned what that meant, but this was something different.  This was a place she would live in for a while, and even knowing that wasn't what Wraen would have wanted didn't help.  Remembering their happy moments didn't either, because right now, every one was just another branch shoved through her heart.  It didn't seem right that, somehow, it went on beating anyway.