If there was one thing Acaeus had learned of grief, it was that it wore many masks. While one hand offered the warm promise of memory, the other held a dagger to his spine, waiting to sever it the moment he accepted the first’s embrace.
Grief was two-faced. If he chased the first hand, he got the second. If he chased the second, he found it waiting. If he ignored both, one or the other caught up eventually, and the one there to greet him was rarely without its blade.










