All the Space that Remains by cloudyhymns  

Fanwork Notes

Tell me, Auntie, why do they travel back across the sea? Once they leave, they tend not to the Earth with their remains—they leave only history. Do the Watchers require something different from what they require of our sons?

“Rebirth,” perhaps, or what their kind calls it—but has it ever been a clean return to life? Is it living for them, or is it living for those who herd them, harrying at the heels of those who tarry by the sea?

[I see, I see, I should leave it be.]

Could one of them fall so far and so fast that they come back around, rising in miracle divine and unnatural—or would they leave the bonds of this world, heading somewhere beyond the pinnings of the stars? Would it free them from the chains of “immorality” cast about them?

Cruel to me, Auntie, have the whispers of banishment seemed. Why were complacency and gratitude assumed in a people driven twice across the sea? Here, they suffer, but so do we.

[The fire flickers—our bones grind beneath the ground.] I’m sorry, Auntie, let me speak again.

Is it not fair to say that two of a kind are we—flocks of different stature and lives, surrounded by the same watchful eyes.

They are not like sheep, and never will be. They are like birds, perhaps, faster than the Watchers, and with words that sing through the years. We must accept that the words of the ones who return alive have passed through many hands, but them? They can find and refine their words for centuries, until it is a mirror to reflect solely as they wish, as clear a bestowment from the gods as any.

I see, I see—And yet you say they will leave, should leave, be pressed away from the land that sharpened them and that shaped them. What then, auntie, separates us from the ones who left them here, save for the reasons behind our cruelty?

For the overlapping land, you say? For all the space that remains?

You say “this” is how their exile starts, with a line of questioning? But who are we if we make no divine inquiry?

[The fire grows dim and the stones grow dark. So much for a shared inquiry.]

Fanwork Information

Summary: What then, auntie, separates us from the ones who left them here, save for the reasons behind our cruelty? Major Characters: Men Major Relationships: Genre: Folktales/Myths/Legends Challenges: Rating: General Warnings:
Chapters: 1	Word Count: 32
Posted on 13 July 2025	Updated on 19 July 2025
This fanwork is complete.