Chapter 103: Shadows Beneath the Lanterns
Ronan chuckled at Sam’s remark, the sound rolling low from his chest.
"You really didn’t listen to Orion’s words earlier, did you?" he asked, tilting his head at Sam. "The festival isn’t just about rembrance. It’s about surviving it. Moving on. We honor our dead, but we’re still here. We’re all good now."
He gestured with one broad hand to the glowing square around them, to the clusters of people laughing quietly, trading stories under banners strung high above. "Our families don’t have to worry about us anymore. That’s what tonight is about. The fact that we survived, the fact that we endured every hardship thrown our way."
"You sure you don’t want to climb the dias and make a speech too?" Tobias asked Ronan.
"Do you not rember how much of a disaster that was the last ti he did it?" Sam asked with curved lips.
"I’ll have you know that that’s the best speech I’ve ever made and besides, it did the sa thing Orion’s speech did today." Ronan told them.
"Yeah..."
"Um...can we go back to the conversation?" Sam asked him interrupting them because she knew that if she gave Ronan and Tobias chance, they will keep on talking and bickering for a while.
Ronan turned to her with his grin plastered on his face although it tilted a bit and made it appear more wry. "Since you asked for it, I’ll continue." Ronan said to Sam and Sophia while Tobias groaned and rolled his eyes at his friend who ignored him.
"You guys know I’m not the only one here who has lost family right. And you Sam, you don’t make it your whole life so why should I?" He asked her.
"Everyone here in this circle has lost soone. So of them lost entire bloodlines. Maybe except you, Sophia," he added gently, "but that’s only because you don’t rember. So we don’t know."
She swallowed. "Is it because of the enclave?" She asked them.
Sam’s laugh ca out low and a little rough. She shifted her weight, crossing her arms over her lithe fra.
"Enclave? I have not had any interactions with the enclave. I don’t know who my parents are."
Sophia blinked at her. "You don’t?"
"No," Sam said simply. "I was an orphan. Grew up running errands, then running scams, then running for my life. Worked the black market for a while with Tobias’s father before he died." She glanced at Tobias then, the corner of her mouth softening. "I was basically a beggar until he took in."
Sophia stared at her. The bluish-gray eyes that had seed so striking before now carried a weight she hadn’t noticed.
Sam’s voice dropped a little. "Tobias’s father...Timothy, taught to read, to write to even be cultured. He gave real work. He let eat at his table. He didn’t care where I ca from. He just wanted to survive. And when he died..." She paused as she turned to Tobias before turning back to Sophia.
"I took over running the market for so ti because I had more knowledge about it than him. I grew up there."
Sophia’s throat tightened. "I...I didn’t know."
"It’s nothing to be sad about. And how would you know? We don’t broadcast all we’ve lost." Sam said with a laugh.
"And you?" Sophia asked Tobias. "Did your father die in the attack?" She asked him but even as the words slipped out she shook her head.
"No, from what I know, it was after the attack that the pack moved here. And you look..."
"Twenty? Twenty one?" Tobias asked her with a smile and she nodded.
"You’re right. My father didn’t die during the attack and Sam only beca a part of our pack after we moved here. I think I was around eighteen when we t?" He asked Sam who stared with a raised eyebrow because she knew he knew exactly how old he was when they first t.
"My father died due to how harsh the weather is in Nirvana. It’s harsher than outsiders even realise. And we had not fully adapted, we were very much dependent on my father at that point, frostbite killed him." Tobias told her.
Sophia felt the weight of their stories piling like snow at her feet. She opened her mouth, closed it, then tried again. "I’m so sorry."
Ronan leaned on one leg, the lanternlight painting his broad shoulders gold. There’s no need to be sorry, it happened a long ti ago and we’ve made peace with it." Ronan told her with a smile.
Sophia could not understand how they could all still smile when they had suffered so much loss like this.
"And you? Your family died during the attack didn’t they?" She asked him.
"Yeah. Like I said Sophia, everyone here present has lost soone. So like I said,there’s no need to make it my whole life. Take for example, Orion..."
He hesitated, then exhaled slowly. "Orion lost his entire family. Father, mother, and his unborn younger sibling. None of them made it."
Ronan went on, his tone steady, as though reciting facts. "Lysander lost his only remaining family...his father. Brynhild..."
He stopped again, and this ti his eyes flicked to Sophia’s, searching.
Sophia tilted her head. "Brynhild?"
"She lost everything," Ronan said softly. "Her entire family was killed in her presence and her twin sister..." Ronan shook his head with a sigh. "And even her sight."
Sophia paused as the words settled on her but one thing stood out to her. Once more she was realising that perhaps she was the dumb one and not the person she had called dumb repeatedly. She could not believe what she was hearing. Maybe Ronan was playing a joke on her because that’s how he usually was but she doubted that.
She was sure he wouldn’t joke about sothing like that which made her frown in confusion.
"Wait a minute." She said, disbelief clouding her voice.
"Is sothing the matter?" Tobias asked her.
"Yes, Brynhild is blind?"
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