[RPG] [BT][Rio] Requiem for a Hero

[Timothy Collett]

Delvin surges out of bed, ignoring the pain.  "WHAT!!" he bellows.

The trembling scribe starts to stammer a reply, but Delvin overrides  
him.  "Get out.  Get out!"

His eyes flashing with grief and rage, he sits down on his bed  
again.  Gods...Gods...Kakeru, dead...how can that be?  He was the  
best of us...and while I lay here wounded!

His face grim with anguish, Delvin takes up his sword, a brazier, and  
a small pouch and stalks out of the tent.  At the entrance, the head  
healer bustles up to him.  "Prime Minister, you're not fully healed!   
You still have to rest!"

Delvin glares at him, and in an emotionless voice that the healer has  
to strain to hear, he murmurs, "One of my best men is dead.  I am  
going to go say a prayer for him.  Are you going to get in my way?"

The healer backs away from the look in Delvin's eyes, and Delvin  
turns and stalks off toward a nearby grove of birch trees.  Once he  
has gone, the healer turns to two of his subordinates and speaks to  
them briefly.  They slip away behind the tent.

When Delvin reaches the grove, he moves to a clearing in the middle  
of it.  There, he sets up the brazier on its stand, and lays his  
sword in front of it on the ground.  Taking flint and tinder from his  
belt pouch, he lights the brazier, and begins to sing softly.

A warrior has fallen in the night;
Raise his soul up to the stars.
Let him come to the eternal light
Freed from strife and mortal wars.

Now let the trees undying shelter him;
By the stream of life he'll lie,
In the realm where light shall ne'er grow dim
The realm where death itself shall die.

 From the pouch he brought, Delvin takes a pinch of powder and tosses  
it into the brazier, turning the flame to a brilliant white.  Taking  
up his sword, he draws it and holds it high, reflecting the pure  
white flame.  Tears stream down his cheeks as he calls out into the  
night:

"Kakeru Date, Warrior and Hero of Riombara: these woods and hills  
shall ever remember your name, and the Sun shall ever shine upon the  
place where you fell."

Before the echoes of his voice have died, the flame goes out, and  
with it, Delvin's strength vanishes.  He falls to his knees, leaning  
on the hilt of his sword.  Quickly, the two healers appear from the  
trees behind him, one supporting Delvin on his shoulders, the other  
gathering Delvin's sword and brazier.

Delvin says not a word as they take him back to the tent and put him  
in his bed, but his face is still wet with tears.

--

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart."
  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

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