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Lucanis gripped Teleri’s hand that rested on his leg, the only sign of movement from him as he watched the body of his grandmother be carried past him, a fine banner of House Dellamorte she had once commissioned on her ascension to First Talon, draped over her body so that only her still imperious face showed under it.
He had been First Talon for over twenty years now and in all that time Caterina had kept going; only passing one year past her 103rd birthday. In that time he’d wondered if she truly were hewn from dragon bone as he’d once told Teleri, and that she might still outlive him.
That lifespan had been remarkable for anyone, let alone an Antivan Crow and he wondered, if her direct blood family had survived the war of succession; her children, his father, if they would have lived as long given the chance. Would he now too, especially with his unique circumstance? There was only one way to find out and he intended to test the theory now he had a family of his own that he cherished dearly.
Since that day when Caterina had stepped down from her position as First Talon, she had taken on other roles that seemed to agree with her, once he’d made it clear he was in charge – adviser and council when he had asked for it and, he thought, as he gazed upon the serene smile she now held, preserved thanks to his friends in the Mournwatch; the role that brought her the greatest peace – great grandmother to both he and Illario’s children.
Perhaps she had decided since her legacy; her family would continue, she could finally rest one month past his eldest, Meryn’s 18th birthday. But whilst alive seeing young children in Villa Dellamorte seemed to wake that softness she had hidden so long as she doted on them, protecting them without resorting to cane or stern word, until she had grown too frail and they had doted on her. They loved their bisnonna dearly and he could hear their sounds of grief as they sat behind him in the grand hall of Villa Dellamorte as those coming to pay their respects did so.
Still his life with her growing up had not always been so easy. She was all he’d known since the age of 10 when he’d lost his parents and everything he’d been told about her by them, she’d rarely if ever shown him. Losing her husband to illness a year before the war of succession started and then seeing her immediate children murdered all within one month had snapped something inside her and she had kept her softness hidden away, lest it be seen as a weakness to her enemies.
With that softness held at bay, she had trained her grandchildren with the brutal efficiency of a military general, trying to forge them into Crows who could survive anything and everything thrown at them.
Unlike her children.
He had deeply resented her when he was a boy, but had buried it and learnt everything he could so he would not fall like his mama and papa, unlike his emotional cousin who had bitten back so many times against her training, Caterina had once called him a lesser Dellamorte. An insult that he had carried and nurtured all the way into adulthood and what came of that.
Yet as he too grew into an adult, Lucanis had realised why Caterina had treated him as she did. It had been one year when they had paid their annual visit to the island off the coast of the villa that held the Dellamorte columbarium, a month after he had come back from a contract that had sealed his nickname of The Demon of Vyrantium, where he had spectacularly wiped out a conclave of alleged Venatori Magisters single-handedly.
As he’d walked up the winding steps of the tower in order to reach and light the fire beacon at the top, he had seen row upon row of bronze plaques containing the Dellamorte family names and the urns stored behind crystal glass screens. One such set half way up were all dated within a month of each other, including the names of his parents and Illario’s.
Caterina had stopped at them and for a brief moment he had heard a sigh come from his grandmother, even if her posture and expression never changed. She had turned her face to him and he saw, if only for a briefest of moments, tears in her eyes.
He knew then she had trained him so that his name would not be placed there so quickly.
And, years later, during his imprisonment and torture at the hands of Zara Renata, he’d silently thanked her training as he knew without it he would have succumb like all the other victims in the Ossuary.
So as he watched Illario walk past him and place a white rose on her body that lay in state on the plinth in the great hall, he lifted Teleri’s hand to his lips to kiss in thanks for her quiet support, then let go and stood, walking over to stand next to his cousin, who waited with a clenched jaw, warring with his own internal struggle against his past and recent memories of his grandmother.
Lucanis took a minute step closer to Illario, bumping his shoulder in such a small way, noone behind them would have noticed. “She did not make life easy for us, did she?” He whispered to his cousin softly as he held his own rose in his hands.
Illario snorted, though there was a smirk on his face as he turned his head slightly to Lucanis. “Understated as always Lucanis.”
“Still, she loved our children and treated them as we wished we’d would have always been treated.” Lucanis placed the rose down next to where his cousin had laid his and gazed at his grandmother’s face. “Do you remember the day she brought us to Café Pietra for the first time?”
Illario nodded slowly, the smirk turning to a full grin. “You had your first taste of coffee from her cup and hated it!”
“I know…” Lucanis chuckled, nodding back as the memory of that day played in his mind as if it had happened yesterday “She bought us both cioccolata calda as reward for pointing out the spy of House Balazar that was there and the best way to put a mild poison in their cups without them seeing, to let them know we knew they'd been following us.”
“One of the few happy moments we had as children.” Illario sighed as his smile faded, as if finally letting go of what he’d been holding inside. “I try to remember the good moments now and make sure my daughter experiences only good ones too. Just as you do with your three. May that long continue Lucanis.”
He patted Lucanis on the back at that and left him alone for one more moment with Caterina, before the pallbearers would step forward to take her to the grand pyre.
Lucanis let out his own sigh, keeping the fond memory of her brief smile when he was the first to spot the spy, and leant down, placing a soft kiss upon her still brow, before lifting the banner to cover her face for the final time.
“Goodbye, nonna.”