As the sun climbed higher and the graves multiplied, Kigal’s muscles ached as they hadn’t in too long. It was a welcomed ache. One of hard and honest work. She and Gamil-An dug five graves at a time, hauled out five individual bodies, anointed and spoke prayers over each—this she had to teach him—then laid them to rest in their earthen homes. Were these more ordinary times, she was sure the townspeople would’ve protested against her burying the dead right outside their walls, but the bodies were many and she couldn’t take them all the way out to the Bone Fields, even with Gamil’s help. Despite the rate at which they worked, they still wouldn’t finish in time. Even if they had Nergal’s help—which they didn’t. Where he’d gone off to was a mystery, but she was still on the surface world so he
