Through the gradual dissolution, Edgar, as he promised, doesn't go anywhere.
He murmurs to her, the same handful of phrases over and over, turning into a sort of hum in his own ears. He rocks back and forth, a little, cradling her carefully wrapped head and shoulders against his chest. He tries not to think of whether she can hear him, or whether he could be doing anything else, or much of anything.
When the tarp folds inward on the vanishing armful of smoke, he chokes on the half-unconscious words coming out of his mouth, drags in a sob of breath through the cloth mask, struggles for a moment to hold it.
And then slowly he gets to his feet, on legs gone numb and tingling as though they've gotten too near to freezing, and pulls out his sending stone.
"John," he tries to say, and has to try again. "John? It's Edgar."
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He murmurs to her, the same handful of phrases over and over, turning into a sort of hum in his own ears. He rocks back and forth, a little, cradling her carefully wrapped head and shoulders against his chest. He tries not to think of whether she can hear him, or whether he could be doing anything else, or much of anything.
When the tarp folds inward on the vanishing armful of smoke, he chokes on the half-unconscious words coming out of his mouth, drags in a sob of breath through the cloth mask, struggles for a moment to hold it.
And then slowly he gets to his feet, on legs gone numb and tingling as though they've gotten too near to freezing, and pulls out his sending stone.
"John," he tries to say, and has to try again. "John? It's Edgar."