Chapter 464: Giving Death Meaning
A fragile, crystalline silence filled the air after Zedya’s pronouncement that she had come to speak for the fallen. Her appearance alone made it clear that she took the role very seriously, but there was something more to her entrance that gave everyone pause.
The coffins carried into the proceeding came in many different sizes and reflected the different traditions of their people. Even on short notice, the honored dead deserved to be cared for in a way that recognized who they were in life.
Four of the coffins were simple but effective daybeds. While they lacked the comfort of the darksteel lined vaults that Nyrielle or Zedya used, the vampire’s of Tausau’s Mongrel Horde couldn’t travel without them and now that they had fallen, their bodies couldn’t risk exposure to sunlight, and so those very daybeds became their place of rest until Tausau could bring them home for their final rest.
Another five coffins belonged to soldiers of the Black Wolf Brigade. They had been assembled quickly from supplies carried by Nyrielle’s army and each one was marked with a red paw print representing the fallen soldier’s courage to fight until death.
The remaining eleven, however, were the ones that shocked the audience the most. Eleven Frost Walkers had been encased in ice, their horns flickering with the last traces of energy that had yet to fade from their frozen bodies. Many of them bore signs of the viscious wounds that had claimed their lives and six of them possessed an odd purplish-red sheen to their fur that no amount of careful washing had been able to remove after they died to the Thistle Witch’s curse.
Their mere presence, however, sent a strong message. Lady Nyrielle had promised that the dead’s demand for justice and vengeance would be answered tonight, and she included the Frost Walker’s fallen in that tally.
"Who are the dead who demand justice and vengeance?" Nyrielle asked formally, her voice shattering the stillness of the room. "What are their grievances?"
"The first of the dead are Shu, Kuupi, Ropart and Laya of the Mongrel Horde," Zedya said, moving to stand next to the coffins that held the vampires. When she learned that Nyrielle herself had flown into the chasm outside the fortress to retrieve the body of the fallen Laya, she knew that she needed to bring closure to these wounded, misshapen vampire’s lives and she needed to ensure that those who lived understood how noble the frequently despised Clanless truly were.
"As Clanless, not one of them has lived an easy life, and many of them were tormented by the pains of their own bodies. Few could live to become adults, yet these few found a way to survive even as their own bodies betrayed them."