[Aqua-chan]

Caprina had been buried the day before, only hours before the storms had hit the coastal town. Her funeral, along with the nameless child's, had been held in a strong rain but had gone mostly undisturbed by the elements. The weather didn't seem to deter mourners as it had turned out to be an unusually large procession for such a small area, Anomen thought. The grave had been separated from the others near a temple within Candlekeep, dug and arranged quickly as the body, difficult as it was for Anomen to take in, was beginning to decay. Having seen a lot of dead things in his life, the priest wouldn’t have ever thought it so hard to accept the fact that death had the same disgusting effects on Caprina just as it did on everyone else. Upon the hasty burial her grave was headed by a wooden marker; it would take a fair amount of time for the craftsmen to create a suitable headstone.

The pair passed by the site on the way back to the Inn. Imoen didn’t notice it. Anomen didn’t bother pointing it out.

It really never occured to her that Anomen was chilled to the bone from freezing rain which she was pretty accustomed to. Had he not the will Anomen was sure his teeth would have started chattering when the wind gave a warning of the oncoming winter. This was lost on Imoen, however, who had been living on the Sword Coast and even further north for a long time, returning to this ‘home’ many times after the Bhaalspawn era at her leisure. Unlike Caprina, Anomen sulked in his mind, whom I had managed to drag all the way to Maztica because I had a crisis of faith.

They passed the great library without incident or notice. Imoen had been within the building many times, and was disappointed to find that it hadn’t been as big and grand as she had remembered it as a child. Anomen had not entered the library, despite having been in Candlekeep for two days. The place itself seemed so sacred that he hesitated to even go there. It was a strange concept for a priest: a place that too holy for a servant of a god to go? Despite the dark humor and irony, respect was maintained with distance.
Perhaps someday, when he felt as though he’d repented for the failure to protect his family, he would feel…worthy of entering. But not then.

In fact, it was very possible that Anomen would never step foot into that library.