Sorran awoke to weeping. 'Awoke' was putting it graciously. It was more like he stuttered back to life, like an engine left out in the cold all winter. Every aspect of him ached, and for those first few moments when he regained consciousness there was no thought other than that of the sheer pain. Then with sickening clarity, the events before his lapse into darkness came flooding back to him. Ignoring the agony, his eyes snapped open and he looked around the room frantically. The smell of blood was strong, the corpses many. All the attackers were dead. Each one mutilated grotesquely, as if someone had pounded them repeatedly after death. They were all piled up unceremoniously in the corner of the room; he noticed he was still in the children's nursery. In the centre of the room, he saw a figure crouched, weeping inconsolably over the lifeless bodies of several people. "Hem?" Sorran managed to croak out faintly. He saw the Sangheili turn around slowly, face looking at Sorran's with utter despondency and an underlying tone of accusation. Nestled within his hands were his wife and grandson; dead. "You let this happen," Hem quivered out, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. Sorran scrambled to his feet, leaving his hearts several hundred metres below the floor. The corpses of Kemyn and Ilia seemed to stare up at him; blood caked their innocent faces, their eyes open and seeming to stare into Sorran with the same burning gaze Hem wore. "What--" Sorran asked helplessly, unable to process everything he was seeing. Tears welled up in his eyes as he saw Hem, clutching his dead family tightly. For the first time the Sangheili truly looked his age; a frail, broken old man. "The Covenant have made their move," Hem spoke bitterly. "Truth, Mercy and Regret have finally decided to do away with us and what we know." "Kym and Gilyi--" Sorran spoke, unable to bring himself to finish his sentence. "Downstairs," Hem croaked out, not seeming any happier for it. "They are fine." Sorran felt relief, but it was not nearly enough to combat the horror he was feeling right now as he continued to stare at the two bodies of Hem's family, especially at the lifeless little husk of Kemyn; a young child, cut down before life had even begun. "Ilia followed me here," Hem managed to get out, tears obscuring his words. "I told her to wait in the bedroom, but she followed. And when I opened the door-- " He broke off then, breaking into a fresh bout of crying. His shoulders sagged even further as he moaned. Sorran noticed for the first time that the hands he held Kemyn and Ilia tight with were stained deep with folksy; he had obviously been the one to warp the attacker's bodies piled in the corner so. "I'm so sorry," was all Sorran could manage, guilt mixing in with the devastation and creating a whole new emotion of self-loathing. "You were here!" Hem suddenly shouted, voice turning into a hoarse scream. Sorran staggered back, alarmed. Through the broken window, he could see the rain crash down outside and wind smash through the trees. "I tried," Sorran whispered in reply. "Gods, Hem, I tried." "I know," Hem finally answered with a choked sob. "I know..." "Hem--" Sorran started, moving to place a hand on the Sangheili's shoulder. It was batted away sharply by a hand which soon returned to caressing the dead bodies in his lap. "Leave me," Hem told Sorran in a fragile voice. "I need to say goodbye... alone. Go see Kym and Gilyi... oh gods, she saw it, Sorran. She saw her brother and grandmother die!" With that thought, a fresh wave of tears cascaded throughout the room, each wail another icicle formed within Sorran's hearts. Shakily, he clutched his still-bleeding side and staggered out of the room, which felt more like a morgue now. He staggered down the stairs, leaving the cries of Hem behind him to mix with the sound of rain and thunder. The lights were all out, but he could faintly see blood fall from his side. [i]Drip. Drip. Drip.[/i] He would need to dress the wound soon. Immediately after thinking that he felt selfish for any thought that wasn't centred around the tragedy here. As he reached the foot of the stairs, he heard more sobbing. Steeling himself for the worst, he limped into the small room adjacent to the staircase and saw Kym and Gilyi, both huddled together on a small sofa. Both wore the same hollow expressions in their eyes, their faces haunted by the shades of what they had seen. Whereas Hem's grief was loud and unrestraint, this was quiet and remorseful, as if the full impact of what had happened had no sank in yet. "... Sorran," Kym seemed to whimper as she finally noticed him come into few. He also saw the sad little face of Gilyi meet his, and his heart went out to both of them. "I'm so sorry," he repeated. [i]This is my fault... and as horrible as it to think it, Hem's fault for not warning his family of the dangers in his wish to keep them happy.[/i] * * * The house burned behind them. A blazing monument to the loss within those obliterating embers, lighting up the night sky like a giant beacon. "It's the only way to buy us some time," Sorran consoled Hem, as the old Sangheili stared with horror at his home set aflame, with the bodies of Ilia and Kemyn still inside. "With luck, the Covenant will believe we were all killed and died in the fire." "They deserved burial," Hem uttered with that same hollow look he'd had in his eyes since his grandson and wife were killed. After an hour of mourning, Sorran had finally much to pry the truth from Hem's grief-locked mind. As Sorran had fallen unconscious, Hem had burst in with Ilia behind him, and she had caught a round in the neck. Death had been instantaneous. With that, the honour guard had gone into a rage of blind fury. Obviously the assassins hadn't been expecting one so old to put up such a fight. They hadn't been prepared for the merciless killing Hem had exacted. He'd arrived in time to save his granddaughter and Sorran. But had lost so much doing so. Finally Sorran had been able to convince Hem to save his grief for later; if the Covenant had decided to kill them all upon Sangheilios of all places, then no doubt they were planning on doing the exact same thing to Restraint. "We can at least save him," Sorran had urged, and with those words Hem had at last snapped back into reality. Now they were covering their tracks, throwing the dogs that hunted them off the scent for as long as possible. "I keep a seraph in storage for emergencies... such as these," Hem informed Sorran, motioning for him to follow. Ashes and burning sparks fell gently through the air, dying on their personal shielding. Sorran's side still ached slightly from the plasma fire that had struck it, but he ignored the pain as best as he could. "What about Kym and Gilyi?" I asked, looking back at Hem's daughter and his only surviving grandchild. "It's we the Covenant want," Hem told Sorran darkly. "My family are just [i]collateral.[/i] If we leave them with Katoth'ee, he will watch over them and ask few questions. The Covenant will focus their attention upon we... and we will most definitely give them something to focus on." "You can't just leave your family, Hem. Not now," Sorran protested firmly. Kym looked so melancholy, illuminated in the wake of the burning inferno behind her. She held Gilyi so tightly in her arms, as if she were afraid that she too would be lost if she didn't. "I have to, Sorran," Hem told him. "For now, at least. The Sangheilian constabulary will be here soon; they've already seen the fire. We've got to go now if we've any hope of reaching Katoth'ee's and then High Charity in time. The barrier around Restraint's manor should hold for some time... unlike the pitiful one I had around my own." "The Covenant will come for the rest of your family eventually," Sorran argued. "Sangheilios retains some rights as an independent sovereign nation but the Covenant will still be hunting for them, regardless of the stigma." "By that time, there most likely will not [i]be[/i] a Covenant," Hem swore, anger clouding his face. Sorran stopped in his tracks then, realising the ramifications of what Hem had just said. "You mean--" "That's right, Sorran. The time has come for all to know the truth. We will find Restraint, and then let all know of how the self-proclaimed 'prophets' are hurrying us to our death." "There will be anarchy--" Sorran tried to argue, but was cut off by Hem. "Then let there be anarchy. I care not if the Covenant crumbles any longer; it can burn for all I care. Are we in agreement, Sorran?" Sorran looked once more at the raging fireball behind them, contained by the manor's shielding system. He thought of the small little body of Kemyn within and the delicate corpse of Ilia, both of them no doubt being reduced to ashes by the flames. He looked then at Kym, and saw only devastation where those beautiful eyes had once been. This was all down to the Covenant. He turned to Hem, and nodded without any reluctance. "Yes." * * *