Chapter 139: Orion and His Family I
For a long time, Orion didn't move.
The night had quieted around him, the hum of festival laughter fading into the distance. Lanterns above the graves swayed gently, their glass shells catching the faintest breath of wind.
The runes carved on their sides pulsed dimly steady, rhythmic, like heartbeats beneath his feet. The cobblestones still held the warmth of countless footsteps, but now it was only his that lingered.
He stayed there, head bowed, until the ache in his neck burned through the stillness.
Two minutes, maybe more. It didn't matter. He had to do this.
When he finally straightened, his throat was tight. He placed the two wineskins before the graves...one before his mother's stone, one before his father's. The third, smaller stone, he brushed with his thumb. It was smooth, rounded from years of rain and wind. There was a faint carving on it, the curve of a name that had never been fully written.
