[Oct 26th, noonish]
"Hey Lord Fire.
This isn't one of my normal prayers. It's a prayer to a friend. I know that's unusual but . . . back when they were around, I told them that I thought that an ideal afterlife would be spending an eternity in the plane of fire with you. Forever, the flames licking and burning away all the toils and troubles of life, leaving behind a free and pure being made of dance & heat. So on the off-chance that they show up there . . . pass this on to them for me? I guess it's really myself that needs closure anyways.
Horns.
I guess I'm not seeing you again. I was hoping that after Jenny was gone, you'd come stumbling out of the woods, wondering what had happened. You didn't.
I guess it's time to face it.
You're gone.
You were a good friend. To everyone. You listened and you respected, no matter how crazy it sounded. And you taught others how to heal. In the sense of medicine, in the sense of softness, and in the sense of the self.
I feel really guilty that I never learned your other name . . . the one your parents gave you. In a sense it never mattered, because you were our friend, Horns, and the name that friends give you matters so much. But in another sense, I'm sure that name meant something to you, and I never did learn what it meant.
I never saw the warning signs. Never knew when you were first addicted. I don't know if I could have seen them, if I had ever looked close enough. I don't know if I would have recognized anything for what it was, but regardless, I missed any sign that was there. I never found you after you escaped . . . I never knew how to look, and I think my friend was already essentially dead at that point. The Horns I know would never even be able to betray their friends. And yet, Jenny made you do it.
She's dead now, Horns. I hope that means that wherever you are, you've found peace. We found her heart, we went through a rirtual, and we stabbed it to death.
I don't heal peple much anymore. I know that's not what you would want, but everytime I pick up a needle, I think of you. You taught me everything I know about healing people. It hurts to remember you. I couldn't heal you, I couldn't even remember that you were hurting. It's easier now to guard my friends with my own life than to watch them bolt off again and again and get themselves hurt.
We have new medics in town now. I don't know if you ever met Keket, but now she's as good a medic as any ever were. Morpha, too. She's a water elemental, she's soft, kind, and naive, and her little water elemental horns . . . she really reminds me of you in a lot of ways.
Holdfast is facing bigger threats than ever now . . . but we're safer. We're more skilled, we have more friends.
I wish you were still here, too.
Wherever you are, now that Jenny's gone, I hope you've stopped hurting. Sorry I wasn't there when you needed someone most.
Goodbye Horns."
