By late autumn of the third year, the Night of Returning Ancestors arrived.
Lila’s grave was surrounded by a ring of white Moon Goddess flowers.
When the wind swept through, their fragrance filled the entire hillside.
In my arms, I held a bouquet of edelweiss.
Kieran had someone send one every month.
For three years, without fail.
Along with the flowers, something else arrived each year.
The first year, it was Lila’s headstone.
Black obsidian, engraved with a single line:
May the Moon Goddess’s light always shine upon Lila.
The second year, it was a set of photographs of the renovated orphanage.
This year, it was a letter.
[Silvermoon Town’s new blood station has been completed. Free treatment. Clean needles. No cost. It has been named after her—the Lila Memorial Blood Station.
