Robert’s Elpidios’s Funeral Pyre
Date: 2025-07-19 21:44
(Robert’s Elpidios’s Funeral Pyre)
[Sat Jul 19 2025]
Appalachian Rest/span>/spannight, about 72F(22C) degrees, and there are clear skies. The mist is heaviest At Thornberry and Blackstone/span>/span There is a waning crescent moon.
Eloa glances over at Robert, as if waiting for him to say something. Her hands are clasped infront of her as she stands next to Matias and Lykaia, her black dress rippling a bit in the breeze.
Matias approaches the built up pyre and checks his watch before quietly nodding to Lykaia and Eloa.
“I would not call this a loving memory. I barely knew him – the only true details I have is some written files, the strength of the man’s arm, and the dedication to protecting those vulnerable. But in our brief interaction, I knew him as a stalwart defender of that which was right and good.”
Suddenly, the pyre ignites/span> The fire simply begins, licking upwards from the bowl and crawling over the bonfire’s surface. It’s strange, the way it climbs, in deliberate fashion, as if creating a new, winding structure from the conflagration.
Robert continues, unsurprised and unbothered. “Here, in the shadow of Mount Varnis, speak now of ponus Elpidios.”
Cadalie takes a breath of ash and lets it burn in her lungs to sober her face amidst the sadness of the pyre-lit space. “I’m sorry you’re not here.” She says softly, and extends her hands too close to the pyre to set upon the wood a little effigy.
Robert nods at Lykaia, as she says her piece, one hand wrapped around the spear, not facing the flames or the body behind him, but his expression on the features of those around him, drifting from face to face.
Tamar arrives a touch late, slipping in amongst the mourners and finding a position nearby Robert.
As the flames ignite, sending golden light over the crowd, Eloa’s skin starts to light up as she speaks, her hazel eyes filling with tears. “Elpis was a good man. Although Eloa only knew him for a week… Eloa could feel that he wanted the world to be a better place. That he wanted to make a difference. To free people who are oppressed.” A tear drips down her cheek as she walks forward to gaze upon the flames, “He slept at the thrift shop when he first got to town. He became friend. He carried his crossbow and brought it into the shop even though Eloa told him it should be okay to protect Eloa.”
A brief pause before the brazilian woman calls out softly, “He will be missed.”
Jasper watches as the pyre is lit, his amber eyes focused on the flames. “A heart of a warrior,” he murmurs, almost hushed. “I only met him once, but he did fought for what is just from what I heard.”
As the flames ignite, sending golden light over the crowd, Eloa’s skin starts to light up as she speaks, her hazel eyes filling with tears. “Elpis was a good man. Although Eloa only knew him for a week… Eloa could feel that he wanted the world to be a better place. That he wanted to make a difference. To free people who are oppressed.” A tear drips down her cheek as she walks forward to gaze upon the flames, “He slept at the thrift shop when he first got to town. He became friend. He carried his crossbow and brought it into the shop even though Eloa told him it should be okay to protect Eloa.”
A brief pause before the brazilian woman calls out softly, “He will be missed.” (repost)
Lykaia moves to the pyre, placing down the flowers by the pyre. She says a few words audible only to those close by, then takes a few steps away.
“Thank you, Eloa, Jasper,” Robert says with dutiful solemnity, as frankincense, cedarwood, and dried rose petals begins to flow outwards from the flames, revealing the kind of branches put to twisted work deep within the heart of the flames that wraps up and up. The strangeness of the flames begins more clear, gray and bright jewels of cinders and coals swirling to form a new structure – a simple hut of a home, a brighter hearth within. “Is there anyone else who would speak?”
Moving back after she speaks, Eloa gives Robert a tearing nod before returning to Matias and Lykaia’s side. Tears trail down her cheeks as she watches the fire burn, the sparks rising up into the evening sky as they watch.
Buck removes his hat and stands before the flames. “Elpidios. I have heard you were a man of values, so we have heard. You were a man of passions, we have also heard. The Truth for most people is in between what is good and what is our failures.” he tosses some petals of the funeral flowers into the fire, “We burn you here this day to burn away your sins as well as your legacy. To make this memory of each of us to carry on that legacy as he put your body to rest. May each of us carry the sins of your passions as well as the your beliefs in Justice. We did not know you long, but we will carry on in your name.”
Tamar is not one for speaking, especially in public and her voice is quiet and subdued. “We spoke of home,” she begins. “Of what is right and the sacrifices that we must make if we wish to stand up to those who would oppress us…” Her voice trails off as she watches the flames, more in her own thoughts than here with everyone else. Finally she picks up again, “He was a good soul, one that I had hoped we would have many more talks but it was not to be. Travel well, Elpidios. Rest well.”
Nodding his head towards Robert, Jasper falls into silence, clutching his black coat despite the heat.
Another form appears from the drifting ash and sparks from the fire, swirling on up. A woman, lean and angular, of hard lines and hair coiled in tight bun, reds and blacks – mostly blacks – in mourning clothes, a veil of wind and ash concealing her features.
And so, Aurelia speaks, her voice pulled straight in echo from the heart of the flames.
“He was quite the strong man. Faced with death, in hellish hole of rot and barbarism, threatened, he was stalwart as any oiled torch within miserable darkness. I found him quite welcoming: and his spirit will carry on, far further than any of you know.” There’s a light lilt to it, a playfulness, and as she’s fading away,
“And so I have ensured he will not disappear in that mass, for his bravery…”
Cadalie’s face loosens behind her veil, fire-lit by the presence and coming to hold her shoulders in the discomfort of an opinion not yet decided.
Jasper looks up at awe upon the form in the flames, before he slowly nods his head once more.
“We will look after Nothos for you Elpis. She will fly come spring when her feathers grow back.” Eloa/i>Matias looks up and then adjusts his glasses scanning the crowd as the voice rises from the flames.
A hand instinctively goes to the pommel of her sword as the figure emerges from the flames, only to slide off when she realizes it is someone. That doesn’t stop Tamar from remaining tense and wary though.
A hand instinctively goes to the pommel of her sword as the figure emerges from the flames, only to slide off when she realizes who it is. That doesn’t stop Tamar from remaining tense and wary though.
Matias takes a step back from the pyre, his hand slipping into his pocket and a string of prayer beads spill out. There is a pause and then he clears his throat staring ahead beginning to murmur a prayer in spanish.
As the woman rejoin the flames, for a moment, it’s a coiling hearth – and then it’s back to a normal fire, rising higher and higher still. Robert is as a statue, cast in darkness by the burning behind him. His voice is clear. “Thank you, Buck, Tamar, Aurelia. Is there any further who would speak?” The corpse is hidden, now, behind the fire.
Matias says “Dust to Dust Ashes to Ashes, may the Lord our God shelter his Faithful and remit this young man’s soul to its proper place and caretaker.“
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Lola whispers quietly, her words for Robert with a faint smile as she approaches the funeral with several bundles of white gardenia flowers in her arms. “I brought white gardenias for peace and new beginnings,” says the Faeling, bowing slightly to Robert and Tamar before she carefully approaches the pyre. Two bouquets of those lovely flowers are gently set inside of the flames, and she watches as they smoulder for a time before she kneels, setting a third bouquet down upon the ground gently, their white petals reflecting the beautiful hues of the flames.
She smiles faintly, then dips her head, turning on her heels and darting over towards Buck.
Kai wanders over to the group and gives a half-moon wave to everyone, he sniffs a few times and lifts his brows in surprise, his lips pulled down a bit in appreciation. He comes to a stop over near Jasper’s side and tucks his hands into his hoodie pocket as he settles in to watch the proceedings.
Lykaia stares at the flames. She doesn’t respond when the voice suddenly speaks and watches when the other woman brings white flames. Then as if jolted back into the moment,her expression turns into a blank, staring slate.
Robert waits in silence, his head turned downwards for a moment more – and then, turns, casting his face in brilliant light once more from the fire as he regards it. The words come out, slow:
“The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart;”
“Devout men are taken away, while no one understands.”
“For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;”
“He enters into peace; they rest in their beds,”
“Who walk in their uprightness.”
Jasper turns his head to greet Kai with a nod until he looks at Robert and the pyre, still silent as the warm light reflects on his amber eyes.
Curls flutter in the wind as Eloa/i>/iCadalie lets go a breath, stifling a cough of ash on the back of her wrist as she makes for a step back, finding a separate grave to hold herself as she lets the group mourne without finding happiness in it.
It takes some time for everything to collapse into the bowl, down and down, simmering away. He watches for a moment as the structure and heat leaves shimmering waves around the brass, the new structure in the area as Robert issues a long, faint sigh.
“Goodbye, Elpidios.”
Tamar keeps her gaze on the flames as Robert speaks, listening but also lost in her own thoughts. She wears a stoic expression, distant from any emotion.
Kai bites the insides of his lips as he watches the memorial, fighting a small smile, his pupils starting to dilate a bit as he sucks up that sweet, sweet grief, his hands securely tucked in his hoodie pocket, though he does lightly rock forward and back on his feet, as if unable to keep still.
“Goodbye Elpis.” Eloa calls out after Robert, “May you fly on the wings of Nothos wherever she goes. May time never touch you and may you always be as wonderful and as kind ..whereever the world may take you.” Eloa breaks out into sobs after the words, turning to press herself against Matias’s chest and cry against him.
Robert finally steps away, his skin bright and pinkened from the heat as he turns to regard the crowd. He simply nods, and states,
“Thank you all for your care,”
Comes murmured.
Something makes Eloa sob harder against Matias, clinging to him as she soaks his shirt with her tears.
Matias seems to be bumped out of a reverie as Eloa turns into him and begins to cry. Looking down at her, he puts a hand atop her head giving it a few pats before turning his attention back to the smoldering pyre.
Tamar draws a deep breath as she steps back from the ashen pyre, lifting a hand and combing it through her colourful hair to draw it back from her face. She lingers nearby, waiting for Robert to finish what needs to be done.
Having made her contribution to the funeral, Lola smiles faintly at those gathered and dips her head, her baby blue eyes lingering on Matias for a while longer before she shifts back towards the road, sweeping her golden blonde hair over her shoulder. She hasn’t stayed long- just long enough to pay her respects, and now she departs, heading for the hills in a very ‘just in case’ sort of speed walk.
Shoulders shaking as her cries, but trying to keep her actual sobs to a minimum, Eloa presses her face in against Matias, clinging to him as he pats her hair.
Robert steps away from the still-hot metal and stone structure before it can blister him or set his clothes aflame, nodding at Tamar, opening his mouth- He turns towards Matias. “Yes?” Then he pauses, puzzled. “I don’t think I ever got your name…” As he moves on over.
“Professor Matias, a faculty member at Windermere.” Matias explains in a resonating baritone of a voice. “I want to thank you for showing restraint the other night. You would surely have been justified. I am sure you will have reason in the future, but at least for now those swept up in the mess who are less able to stand for themselves can step away.” and he casts a look down to Eloa still trying, his hand smoothing her hair down and then going to rub her back before returning his bespectacled attention to Robert
Tamar listens quietly to Robert and Matias’s discussion, a small glance shot the former’s way at mention of events she doesn’t seem to be aware of. She does, however, offer a polite greeting of “Professor,” towards Matias before her gaze slides over to Damian.
“Perhaps.” Robert answers Matias quietly. “Perhaps. But how long will it hold, before the full moon begins, and the hospital is assaulted? I, for one, will not be holding my breath. I will do my duty, as our man did here, in spite of all odds.” His face doesn’t budge an inch. Distant and impassive, and no longer attempting to project the distance.
Matias dips his head to Tamar “It was a pleasant service, if there had not been a spirit present. I would have offered to say words over the grave, but I felt he likely did not hold with the Catholic faith.” and then to Robert, “Peace comes from loss and war stems from anger. So it goes.”
Now that the process is complete, Lykaia turns to leave. She doesnt look back, neither at the others nor the plaque. Those who know or could tell: She’s not here, dissociated, disconnected.
“I don’t believe it would have been justified. I come from a belief that the punishment should fit the crime, and Damian Fairfang had done no crimes.” Buck motions to the burning pyre, “If you want Justice, real and true Justice for this death, then Alphonse Fairfang was the killer. This is what the evidence says, and this is right and true. Any other outcome would just be murder.” Buck says with a frown at Matias.
Kai presses his lips together and out as he slowly rocks forward and back, his hazel eyes alight with the fire consuming the corpse, he sucks his lips back in and pushes them out again in some kind of weird tic while he listens to Matias as he speaks, his pupils quite dilated between the darkness and the grief that hangs so thickly in the air, hands stuffed deep in his hoodie.
Damian strides in, keeping a respectful distance from both pyre and attendees. As Tamar shifts her gaze towards him, he shakes his head. “I’m not here to start anything. A warrior should respect another warrior’s passing, regardless of whose banner they fought under.”
Sniffling a little, Eloa seems to calm down a bit as Matias speaks, lifting her head to look at Robert while she still clings to Matias but is no longer growing an ever larger patch of wetness on his chest.
Robert doesn’t react to Damian’s words. He just lifts his shoulders in casual shrug back at Buck’s words. There’s no energy left for bickering. “Come along, Tamar. Let’s head home.”
“True,” Jasper nods towards Buck before he turns to give Robert and Tamar a nod of farewell. “My condolences. May his soul rest in peace.”
Matias lifts a hand in an acknowledgement of the departing duo before telling Eloa, “You should take ashes form the edge of the pyre. So when the hipoogryphon flies, the ashes can be spread from the sky.”
“Is that okay?” Eloa asks Robert softly following Matias’s words about spreading his ashes.
Robert gives the slightest of nods back to Eloa, an agreeing grunt coming from between his lips. “Do it over the volcano, if you can,” He suggests.
“Alright,” Tamar murmurs to Robert, stepping up to follow him back to the vehicles.
“Nothos won’t be able to fly until spring.. and um..” Eloa looks uncertain she’ll be able to fly the hippogriff, “But will try then.”
Robert simply nods – and without that he steps away.
“I shall meet you back at the house?” Tamar asks, ready to break away and looking at her mare.
Kai heads over to his BMW and glances at Robert and Tamar in passing, he hops in and starts it up.