The Scattered Bones

by Nicole Scarano

There’s a reason mortals never enter the Sivatag. None who cross its borders ever reemerge.

Hreinasta abandoned me, ensuring no god will ever answer my prayers, and while I don’t regret the actions that caused her shunning, I feel the absence of her blessing.

Hreinasta is not the only deity our realm worships, but the Pure One is our greatest treasure. When she rejected me, the rest followed suit,

but I must survive… for him. This is all for him. A thief who’s only sin was stealing my heart and offering his in return.

“Then lay down and give up.”

“No.” “There she is. I knew you hadn’t lost yourself.”

The man I long to talk to is dead, and if I can’t

speak to him, then I prefer silence. His fate was my fault, yet he was the one punished.

I cradle my hand to my chest as I repeat his name over and over. He’s why I’m here. He’s why I willingly suffer, and so his name has become my prayer.

I pray his name again. I won’t stop reciting it until I’m dead.

The dark magic they used and the absence of the god of death means there’s no eternity for him. There’s no afterlife where I’ll see his face, kiss his lips, feel his arms. If I leave this world, we both end, and my stubbornness won’t allow that.

He greeted his punishment with a dignified rage, regretting nothing despite our brutal outcome. No, he was brave, his gaze never leaving mine so I wouldn’t be afraid. I forced myself to watch everything they did to him so he wouldn’t be alone.

He was awake until the bitter

end, and I saw the agony and sorrow and love in his eyes until they blinked shut for the final time. Cowardice never marred his features, and I won’t be weak now when he was remarkably strong.

I’ve finally found his second severed body part, and I cling to his leg, enduring the sting of its curse.

Along with his torso that I rescued from Hreinasta’s holy fire, I have more of him than I did yesterday. I can do this because his love gave me faith. His training forged a warrior in my soul, and his death hardened my resolve. I’ll find the rest of his scattered bones.

I’ll recover every severed limb, and then? Then I’ll learn if The Stranger was telling the truth. If he’ll keep his promise, or if I’m simply a foolish girl so desperate for hope that I’ve placed my trust in a madman.

But I was always alone, forgotten in my own home like treasure hidden away for safe keeping. With my raven black hair and my crystal blue eyes, I was lovely even as a child.

For a deity sworn to purity, she’s obsessed with youth and beauty.

She had graced no other girl with her touch.

“Divine,” she whispered,

“I accept your offering.” She left without another word, but I knew. That was the moment I realized I would be her next vessel. She’d cho...

This journey is mine and mine alone; my faith required to be absolute, but when he promised to return what I lost if I found his scattered bones, he’d captured my hands.

Yet from that moment, I could sense my thief’s limbs calling to me. His shattered body, his broken heart. He wants me to find him, to make him whole. Or perhaps it’s our vows that guide me, and that’s how I came to stand before these ruins. Not even death can part us, for we are one.

“I’ve grown fond of you, and your quest is only at its birth. It would be a shame to lose you so soon.”

I’m hunting a single body part among thousands.

It was the first thing I noticed about him. How rich and low his voice was. It rattled my chest, embedded itself in my bones, and I can no longer remember it. The sound abandoned me, so I speak his name.

“I’m here,” I whisper. “I’ve come for you like I promised I would. Guide my feet.”

This is where they laid him to rest. They placed him in the lowest part of the ruins and then toppled the stones above him. The only way I’ll retrieve what they hid is if I descend into the shadows.

I picture his face and know. He would never admit

defeat. He never did. Neither shall I. “I’m sorry,” I say as I glance at where I left the Stranger in the jungle. “If I don’t make it out, thank you.” And then I drop into the blackness.

We’re bound even in death, and that’s why I still sense him. I move despite the pain.

“Gods,” I yelp as my knuckles brush against coarse fabric. I seize it and peel away the burlap until I feel flesh. Cool flesh, and I don’t need to see to know these hands. How many times did they wrap around my fingers, stroke my hair, caress my face? I would recognize them anywhere. I found him.

I can’t stop the sobs that wrack my body, but to my surprise, The Stranger wraps his muscular arms around me. He says nothing as I convulse. He merely lays there and lets me cry as I catch my breath. “You aren’t allowed to help me,”

“I didn’t.” His ribs rattle my cheeks. “I simply held your hand.”

“Thank you.” Relief floods my words.

“We shoul...

“The evil has tasted you. We need to put as much distance as possibl...

“It’s all right,” I say, clinging to the Stranger’s cloak with one fist and hugging his severed hands with my other. “I do...

His eyes destroyed my spirit, and in an instant, the thief re-wrote my future. He stole my life and twisted it to his will.

“I won’t tell a soul of this. Meeting you… I shall treasure it for myself.”

“Well, Sellah.”

“Now that we’re acquainted and no longer strangers, you don’t have to be lonely.”

“I am blasphemy.” “No, my child. You are a survivor.”

“I keep my promises, Sellah.”

“I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you. I mean this in the most respectful way, but you are divinely lovely. I’m almost ashamed to share the same air as you.”

“You’re lonely too?”

“All my life.”

Stranger?” I ask as I trudge through the snow. “If I don’t return, will you take what little of him I’ve found and lay him to rest?”

“Of course, my child,” his silent voice answers.