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These obsessions made him into a bitter and distrustfulof a recluse He made a home for himself deep in the mountains--erie of Chi;ra

I was hired to tend your father’s beasts He cared for little except his secret histories and his animals

Until he ned by the Elders to keep an eye on your father Soer to our people Erina saw so else in him She saw a man who could be rescued from himself

Your mother was beautiful You reacies of flight and Elecomun, the power to manipulate currents of electricity So she would fly above your father’s home and create these brilliant displays, like fireworks

Your father distrusted Erina and openly challenged her reasons for coht, he would come to the courtyard to watch your ;ra

One of your father’s Legacies allowed hi--like your Aeturnus--but it hasit hard for them to see Or, in the case of his courtship of yourstrikes Bright pinks and oranges ripped across the sky at night Your father, for the first ti himself

They fell in love and soon were married And then, you ca with the Garde and they would coone now

The Mogadorians ca his days as a recluse, your father had aed to your fa an old fuel-powered spaceship that he believed was used by your great-grandfather in the last Loric war When Erina moved in, she convinced your father to donate many of these iteadorians ca off any conventional ht of the old ship waiting dormant in the ainst the invasion, your father planned to escape Somehow, he knew our people were doomed

Your o and join the fight They argued, their ht ever

You were the compromise Raylan promised to stay only if you were allowed to escape I can still reood-bye Your father pressed you into my arms and I was ordered to ;ra joined us, acting as our bodyguards,on the way

This is how I became your Cêpan

I watched our planet die through the portholes of a departing spaceship I felt like a coward The only ti ashamed is when I look at you, Ella, and see what that cowardice saved

What is done is done You were not part of the Elders’ plan That does not make you any less Loric, or any less a Garde Nureatness, Ella You are a survivor One day, I know, you will make our people proud

I love you

Forever, your faithful servant,

Crayton

I stop reading aloud and lower Crayton’s letter with shaky hands There are tears in ine what it would feel like to have such a huge part of my identity just ripped away from me Everyone is silent, even Nine Ella htly around herself

"You’re still one of us," I whisper to her "You’re Loric"

Ella starts to sob, choked words escaping her in a torrent "I’uy’s daughter who got launched off the planet because her dad was a creep"

"That’s not true," says Eight, putting his arm around Ella

"I wasn’t chosen," Ella cries "I’m not--it was all just lies"

Nine takes the letter out ofit over "So what?" he says dis "So what?"

"The charm is broken," Nine continues "The numbers don’t mean shit You can be Ten, you can be Fifty-Four, it doesn’tWho cares?"

Nine sounds so callous, just brushing off what is such a major blow for Ella She looks stunned I’ Nine

"What Nine is so indelicately trying to say," interjects Eight, "is that it doesn’t ot here Just because we flew in on different ships doesn’t rumbles Nine, "I wish there’d been more selfish dudes like your pops We could have a whole army"

I shoot Nine a look and he puts his hands up,motion across his mouth Even with Nine’s total lack of tact, between the three of us, it see and, after ato the floor