Winterlights by Elleth

Gifts for the Living

For prompt #17: Homemade gifts. Míriel and Indis re-affirm their bond. (A follow-up to chapter 14).

The fire in the courtyard is burning low, the ceremony over, and Míriel and Indis sit and speak quietly in the old language, excessive syllables rattling like a child discovering the joy of speech, part consolation, part grief.

Before both slip into half-lidded drowsing, a last thing remains, an affirmation of care, a trade of love and reliance. Indis sets a swan-bone flute to her lips to play a song to lighten Míriel’s often-heavy heart, and Míriel gifts a length of gold-embroidered cloth worth all treasures of the palace.

Slowly their smiles return, knowing that for all wistfulness, they live.