Exile's End: Day 17

Word Count: 102,055

Summary of Events:
Chapter 33:
Thårijn woke up from a nightmare and went to Helännä's bedside and spoke with her. Bæjern then ended up waking up and summoned the rest of Helännä's children to her bedside — along with her grandchildren. Æliyäu also woke up and came to Helännä's bedside. Later on Thårijn made it known to Bæjern — and by his vocal volume the remainder of his siblings — that he intended to bury Helännä in Sönniväbæsted.
Chapter 34:
Æliyäu started packing things, but found himself feeling nervous, likening the idea of finally achieving freedom to getting onto a horse for the first time, a rather nerve-wracking thing in all due honesty. Thårijn also, rather reluctantly, began packing, also feeling fear, and creating an analogy likening freedom to clean water, and captivity to dirty water, and feeling almost as if Göd had let too much time pass between their being taken away, and their return.

Excerpt of the Day:
""Mother!" Thårijn said — louder than he'd intended to.
Helännä's eyebrows raised, and then slowly her eyes opened, they looked tired, dim, unlike he'd ever seen them before. The thudding of his heart in terror he was sure was being heard by Bæjern even.
"My son," Helännä said, in a voice so fait Thårijn nearly had to lie on top of her mouth to hear it. She looked so weak.
Thårijn looked at her desperately, he didn't know what to say, he wanted to cry and get angry at the same time, he wanted to do something, but there was nothing that could be done. Absolutely nothing.
"It has come," Helännä continued, talking slowly.
Terror anew exploded within Thårijn. This was not good. It was not good at all. Why did it have to be this way? Why could it not be contrary?
"Time for me," Helännä said.
No. No. No! Thårijn wanted to shake sense into her, but it would be like shaking a blanket, she would just flap around limply, and he could well even kill her by doing it. And there was no sense to be shaken into her.
"To depart," Helännä finished. . . .
. . . "Mother, I am not yet ready to go on without you," Thårijn said. "I cannot do it. You must stay, please Mother, please."
"I can do naught," Helännä replied. "Against the will of Göd."
"But Göd can work miracles!" Thårijn protested.
"He wills not," Helännä replied.
"Why not? Why can't He will it now?" Thårijn demanded.
"He chooses no to," Helännä replied.
"Why does He have to?" Thårijn cried.
"My time is full," Helännä said. "It is now time . . . "
"Mother! No!" Thårijn cried.
"To leave these dark halls," Helännä said. "For glorious places."
"But Mother!" Thårijn fired.
"We shall meet again," Helännä said.
"I don't want to part now!" Thårijn cried.
"It is time," Helännä said. "You must go."
"No!" Thårijn protested. "I will not leave!"
"Fulfill what Göd," Helännä said. "Has called you to be."
"I do not want to be alone!" Thårijn cried.
"Rule over our people," Helännä said. "Be king."
"No! I can't do it Mother! It's impossible!" Thårijn protested.
"You have been chosen," Helännä said. "You will do it."
"I don't want to," Thårijn said.
"Göd will help you," Helännä said.
Thårijn took shaky breaths, staring desperately at his mother, willing her to keep her eyes open.
"Thårijn," Helännä said, even softer than before. Her eyelids slid closed.
"Mother!" Thårijn cried aloud. He felt her wrist. Nothing. Her neck. Nothing. Beneath her nose. Nothing.
Thårijn put his head against her bosom — where he'd put it many times as a child — and wept, his hand still wrapped tightly around hers. He wept loudly and more agonized than ever he had wept before.
Helännä, daughter of Äbrääm, descendant of Bejøn of the house of Kæs, was dead."