DEATH

Miyabi swung her longsword down into the neck of the Basilisk. The blade was driven into the great serpent’s neck, not fully cleaving through but greatly wounding the creature. Its head crashed down to the ground, still holding on to Masha. She flopped in its mouth, unconscious, like a rag doll.

Chinatsu leaped up and drove his katana into the Basilisk’s eye, through to its brain, killing it. He, Joel, and Miyabi worked together to pry the Basilisk’s mouth open while Peony pulled Masha free. Her stomach had been pierced by one of the enormous fangs.

They laid her out on the grass. Her once warm, brown skin was now dull and pallid. There was so much blood.

“Peony! Please…” Chinatsu cried.

“I’m trying!” Peony had put their hands on the open wound and began to utter their healing prayers. Could something like this even be healed by Peony?

Chinatsu felt something whack him in the back of the head and saw stars.

“She’s like this because of you, fucking brat!” Joel screamed, pulling Chinatsu to his feet by his arm like it was nothing. He reached his hand back like he was going to slap Chinatsu again when Miyabi caught his wrist.

“Don’t you lay another hand on Chinatsu!” Miyabi growled. Joel let go of Chinatsu and used that hand to try prying Miyabi’s hand from his wrist. Chinatsu found himself dropping to his knees.

“Stop it! That’s enough!” Peony yelled. Chinatsu saw Peony’s eyes burn with anger and panic as they pressed both hands on Masha’s midsection. The Elf’s porcelain skin was now covered in blood up to their elbows.

Joel and Miyabi aborted their grapple and kneeled at Masha’s side. Chinatsu saw Masha’s eyelids flutter momentarily. She was still alive, so there was still hope…right?

“Masha! Hang in there!” Chinatsu said, taking her hand in his. Her eyes slowly opened and closed. It seemed hard for her to keep them open.

“It’s okay, I’m here. We’re all here for you,” Joel said, brushing her hair off her face.

Masha opened her eyes and looked around. Her breaths were growing short and haggard. “Ba…Basilisk…”

“Shh, it’s okay. We killed it, don’t worry,” Miyabi said, taking her other hand.

Masha looked to Peony, who was working so hard to save her. She pulled her hand from Chinatsu’s grip and placed her hand on Peony’s. Between wheezing breaths, she croaked out the words, “Don’t.”

Peony immediately stopped and pulled away.

“Wha–? What are you doing? Don’t stop!” Chinatsu urged.

Masha looked at Chinatsu and shook her head. He looked back and forth from Masha to Peony, hoping Peony would resume. Peony only took Masha’s hand in their tiny hands and caressed it.

Masha’s eyes began to glaze over as she looked to the sliver of sky that was peeking through the canopy of the orchard. Tears welled up in her eyes and poured out freely. Still, she smiled.

“I’m…glad…” she choked out, her breath becoming shallower. “Thank…you…all…”

Masha took her final breath, still smiling.

Chinatsu’s howls echoed through the quiet orchard. He slammed his fists on the ground. “Bring her back! Please bring her back!”

“I’m sorry,” Peony said softly. “That’s not something I can do.”

The four of them did what they could to dig a shallow grave for Masha under a peach tree. Miyabi and Joel carried Masha over and gently laid her to rest in the grave. Chinatsu wiped tears from his eyes with bloody and dirt-covered hands. He wanted to eulogize for Masha, but found himself barely able to even form the semblance of a thought.

“C’mon…show some respect for the dead,” Joel snapped. Peony was digging through the rucksack Masha had always been carrying.

“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” Peony responded flatly. “It would be a disservice to her not to bury her without something she treasures.”

The Elf produced a small cube wrapped neatly in a silken cloth. Peony unwrapped it to reveal a small, ornate silver box.

“What’s in it?” Miyabi asked.

Peony opened the box to reveal three locks of hair–two silver, one black–tied off neatly with ribbons. They all stared at the hair in the box in silence. There was no need to be able to read the unintelligible handwriting on each ribbon to understand what they were all looking at.

Peony closed the box and gently placed it on Masha’s chest, folding her hands over it.

Silence permeated the air once more as they filled in the grave just as when they dug it. Chinatsu went through these motions with a sense of dissociation. He had not been in his own body since they woke up in this world, but it was at this point more than ever that he truly felt like he existed outside of his own body.

He could accept all the monsters, magic, Elves and Beastmen, but the reality of death was something he struggled to accept. Especially with knowing what he knew about death in this world. None of it felt real.

It had been several hours since he had last begged Peony to save Masha’s life. Several hours since the crushing reality beat him into submission. As they sat around the campfire, sorely missing Masha’s presence, Chinatsu finally found the strength in him to speak.

“What will happen to her now?” he asked. His throat felt so dry. He met Peony’s gaze–they looked at him with such pity.

“She won’t become a Wraith,” Peony replied. Tears welled up in his eyes at the thought of that even happening.

“How do you even know that!?” Chinatsu said, gritting his teeth. The confidence with which Peony spoke made him feel a flurry of emotion. He looked away from Peony before he could break down again.

Peony was quiet for a moment, as if thinking on the question.

“Because she was happy. I don’t think for a single second that she died regretting what she did,” they finally said.

Miyabi patted Chinatsu on the back as if to reassure him to trust in Peony. He wasn’t sure if those words were just a simple kindness or the truth, but truly, he wanted to believe it.

“You lied to us, and she paid the price,” Joel said. He had been exceedingly quiet as well, just lying down with his back toward the fire since they had settled in for the evening. “You said you’d guarantee our safety, and you couldn’t even do that.”

Peony’s moth opened and closed like they wanted to say something. In the end, the Elf bit their lip and left it at that. While Chinatsu normally would have gone to bat for Peony, he understood that now more than ever, they couldn’t be infighting. He let Joel’s remarks roll off him like water off a duck’s back.

Once more, in the open space, they each took their turns keeping watch. Though it proved to be futile since it seemed like none of them could sleep anyway. At some point during the twilight of dawn, while Chinatsu was drifting in and out of sleep, Joel set off on his own. Nobody said anything about it. Nobody cared. It was better for them all to just let him go if that was what he wanted.

Peony slept as Chinatsu watched the sun rise. He wondered how many more sunrises he would have to endure in this terrible place. They should be reaching the exit soon, so he hoped this would be the last one.

Chinatsu looked over Peony. They seemed to have a sort of detached indifference to death. While their composure wavered slightly when trying to save Masha, when death became inevitable, Peony exhibited a certain calm. He wondered how many deaths Peony had to witness in this place in order to steel them to it. Though perhaps because Elves were such a long-lived race, Peony was like this from the start.

Miyabi sat down next to Chinatsu on the grass, her hand sitting next to his just close enough for their fingertips to touch. Having kept her composure this whole time, she was starting to look worn down.

“I didn’t realize you were awake,” he said.

“I couldn’t stay asleep, so I just decided to get up when I saw you here.”

They sat in comfortable silence, but the nagging feeling just wouldn’t go away for Chinatsu.

“Miyabi…” he mumbled.

“Yes?”

“Is it my fault?” He turned his head to look at her.

“Is what your fault?” She looked at him. Her expression full of pity.

“Everything.”

Miyabi pulled Chinatsu in for a tight hug. He hugged her back for the first time since they were children, holding her close.

“No. None of this was your fault. It was all just one horrible accident after another,” she said, her voice wavering.

“Do you hate me?” he asked as tears began to stream down his face. He knew the answer to this, but at this moment, he just needed reassurance.

“Of course not. I–” she stopped herself. Miyabi swallowed hard, then continued. “I don’t hate you.”

Then it should be okay for them to stay like that for a little longer. Maybe there was more she wanted to say, but Chinatsu wasn’t going to press. Instead, he listened to her heartbeat in one ear and the arrival of birds chirping in the other.