"Miri... what do you mean by that?"
The last funeral he bought flowers for was for his mother. His mother taught him years ago, when he was just a boy, that by the grace of the Arche-Mother Asherah, humans were allowed to live upon the sorrows of a moon bygone. For Her grace, they must offer up their lives to paying back a debt that they themselves hadn't signed. And so, Miri tended to the flowers. He worked in his mother's shop from time to time, showing brides where to get the prettiest flowers for their wedding, shy young men where to find the perfect flowers for a newly wished love, even old widows who merely wanted to reminisce of a home long gone. But the saddest part for baby Miri was to help people pick out flowers for the death of a loved one. People would come in, red eyes and trembling, and the first time, the poor boy couldn't hold in his tears, for a love that wasn't even his. Since then, he's helped. No matter who died, what sins they committed, by the grace of Her Highness, he helped them. For in the Arche-Mother's words, the slow dying, inconceivable death of a wilting lily would much rather end its life in the presence of another who's creation had ceased than die alone with its body festered with parasites. But Miri stopped after his mother died. Since a young age, he'd believed the Arche-Mother would protect all, no matter what they were, who they were. The Daughter of Life was supposed to give. She didn't give anything when the boy's mother died at the hands of another in cold blood. He believed in Her, dedicated his entire life to Her. He believed She would help whenever one called. But She never did. Was it all a lie? A false hope planted by the gods? What were the gods created for, if all they did was take? And so, Miri turned to a hand that had touched Death for his own solace. Sins piling up on each other like rotting bodies. He would do anything to take back everything he's done, to live as a simple florist in a simple town with his mother and lover. Only the last remained. He doesn't know how much longer that will stay, either.