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The softly lapping screams of the river reached her first. Her back ached, her tomb was rocking gently, and a hand was on her shoulder.
Harrow opened her eyes for the first time in a second, or an eternity. Above her the grey and featureless sky stretched on in all directions, Marred only by, just above her-
"Griddle?!"
Gideon Nav, Cavalier primary to Harrowhark Nonagesimus and half of the sacred Lyctor Harrow the ninth, punched her in the shoulder.
"Really, Nonagesimus? Eighty years and the first thing you say is Griddle?!"
She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and looked again. Nope, still there. Golden eyes staring down at her in amused grievance, for once missing the omnipresent sunglasses. She was turned halfway around, feet trailing in the river as she perched on the side of the coffin, and harrow could see the defined lines of muscle that highlighted her back and ran down her arms.
Suddenly, she didn't know what to say. Her sight grew hazy with tears.
"Hi, Harrow."
Harrow backed up, scooting to the icy headstone. She strained under the weight of the sword as she fought to sit up.
Gideon watched her strain, her face warped in a picture of unparalleled glee.
"Are you going to help me with this or not?" She spat out.
"See, this is why we do work out, Hark." But she leaned forward, and with an outstretched index finger lifted the old blade, settling it down to the side to give her room. Flushing, Harrow settled back up.
"I managed."
Gideon laughed, a short sharp bark.
"Really? I had to do So much to make your skinny ass to something I could use. Even Palamedes had more muscle!"
"So- it worked then? You lived?!"
"Awhile, yeah. Wasn't a lyctor tho, with just me in there." Gideons face creased, and she glanced out to the water.
"Gideon I- I had to. I couldn't let you die there, not for me." Harrow reached for her, solid and cold as the stone coffin as she watched the ghosts around them.
"One flesh, one end. I thought you got that."
"But not your end! Not yours, not then. Or would you rather i burn the only rose that bloomed in bone ?"
"Yes?! I died for you Harrow, I died to become yours and you couldn't even bring yourself to remember me?!"
"I Saved y-" She sighed, exhaustion crashing over her like a wave. Above her, Gideon too stilled. They sat like that awhile, among the ghosts and the grey.
The calm broke with a yelp of pain. Harrow peered over to see Hideon stomping on a ghosts face, trying to dislodge the needy creature from her leg. Gideon glanced back at her once the thing had left. She smiled wetly at her cavalier, who had the grace to look embarrassed at the noise, at breaking the sacred silence.
"Here." Gesturing at the other end of the coffin, Harrow pulled her legs towards herself. With a grateful nod, Gideon hauled herself over the side and into the coffin. And they watched each other.
What should she say? What could she say, to someone who had lived eighty years without her, and yet she remembered from mere months ago?
"....Is this one of yours?" She rummaged behind her, and offered forth the magazine to Gideon.
"Frontline titties of the fifth!" Gideon exclaimed, though from shock or delight harrow didn't know. "You know this is a real thing now?"
Harrow blinked.
"What."
"Oh yeah! After I was back on the ship, out of the mithraeum with Dve, I started it up! Not like anyone was gonna say no to the dreaded Harrowhark the First, you know."
"You used... My status as a Lyctor.... To publish a porn mag?"
Gideon nodded cheerfully. It was the last straw for Harrow and she burst, Laughing her sorrow to the void in hysterics. She was dimly aware of Gideon joining her, but when her exhaustion had spilt over, she found herself able to smile at her cavalier.
"God, Gideon, I've missed you."
"He's dead, and likewise Nonagesimus."
"Wait, dead?!"
"Yup. Camilla helped me."
"Bu- How? One does not simply walk up and kill god!"
"We did. And then I found you here. Been a pretty good life all told" She leaned back , resting her hands behind her head. Somehow, she was wearing those fucking sunglasses.
"Yes I wanted to - wasn't I on an island? In the tomb?"
Gideon shrugged.
"Dunno. when I died, I went looking. Found you here."
"Your lack of intellectual curiosity astounds me sometimes Griddle." Despite everything, fondness was creeping into her voice. Harrow cursed under her breath, and glanced up into those sunglasses, and the tiniest of soft smirks underneath. Damn it.
"You love me."
The body flashed briefly in front of her, and faded. Harrow could not bring herself to protest Gideons statement. She loved the body, and always would, but she had two hands.
"Ok Nav." They sat there then, letting the current drift them downstream as they basked in their presence.
It was Gideon who broke the silence.
"Hey.... Where are we going?" Harrow opened her eyes, glanced around. The river was endless and featureless, and they carried along down it. but slowly, ever so slowly, they were veering, being gently carried to the other shore as they carried on down the river.
"I don't know. But we have time before we get there." Determination filled harrow, and she scooted forward, tangling their legs together a little. If she was gonna stay with Gideon on their little raft, may as well get comfortable.
"Now, come on Griddle. You've been inside my body for a lifetime. I deserve to know what you've been doing with it."
And slowly, slowly, a coffin of ice and stone carried the two to a single end.