They cried together for hours in that refuge that had become a tomb for happiness that would never return.
After Selphira and Julius arrived to help with a cleanup that couldn't clean away what had been lost.
After the beasts were eliminated through force and fury that came too late to matter.
After all the danger had passed and only grief remained, persistent and crushing.
They simply sat on the cold stone floor of the refuge, father and daughter, crying for the person they'd both loved more than anything. More than duty or honor or their own lives. Crying until there should have been no tears left but somehow they kept coming anyway.
Much later, when the immediate storm had passed into hollow exhaustion...
In some moment between coherence and complete breakdown, delirious from pain and exhaustion...
Luna had murmured between tears that wouldn't stop no matter how she tried to control them: "Mom always said I was her perfect little star."
