Throughout the plaza, similar scenes unfolded.
Mothers who would never again embrace their children stood frozen in grief, their hands reaching out to touch cold metal where once they had felt warm skin.
Fathers who had proudly sent warriors to the wall now received statues in return, their faces etched with the particular agony of outliving their children.
Brothers and sisters whose last words had been trivial arguments now found those petty disagreements weighing like mountains in their hearts, the chance for reconciliation forever lost.
A small child, no older than Rian, touched his father's statue in confusion. "When will he return?" he asked again and again, while his mother held him, unable to answer.
Not far away, Selene stood in silence before Raelar's tree.
