Remembrance

“Rising out of the surrounding sea of dunes like the battered prow of a ocean faring ship, the s’Amvha Sanazas – the “Divider of the Ways” stood like a bastion guarding entrance to the plateaulands beyond. In the fresh hours before Wesdraken’s suns arose, Malena had led Braedan up a precarious path carved out of the sand-blasted basalt to the summit of the outcrop from where they could watch the growing dawn over the dunes.

Braedan immediately sensed the aura of the place and its profound effect on Malena. Carved in the rock behind them were two niches each bearing a single dessicated and aged skull. Malena bowed her head in silence for a long moment as Braedan gazed on over the dawn-touched dunes. Far below their perch the battered and sand-corroded wreck of a small space freighter peeked from the spine of a large dune.

Brad knew, without any words being exchanged, that Malena had returned to her roots on Wesdraken. Here her father had died in the fiery crash of the battle-damaged space freighter. Her mother had survived, saved by the Sadusi, and not left – as was their way – to the mercies of the elements, for she had been with child. She had later passed from this existence, leaving her offspring, Malena, in the hands of the wild desert-dwelling sapients. The Sadusi had observed their rituals of reclaiming the corpse’s water for the benefit of the tribe, leaving only the skulls for the burial rites high up on the s’Amvha Sanazas where the young refugees had met their fate…”