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"I have soht She left the room for a moment and returned with a stack of papers

I moved my backpack off the bed and onto the floor, and we sat down together on the single bed that was the only piece of furniture in the roo as she shuffled the papers about, looking for the one she wanted to start with

"This is just," she started, holding the papers up for n, and an ID, passport and a few credit cards Ao and askedhappen to him" A tear fell silently from the corner of her eye onto her wrinkled, ashen cheek

"Thank you," I rief affectI took the papers froe as twenty-one I turned seventeen yesterday, but barely remembered that it wasto stay focused, I cleared my throat, "And what is the rest of this?"

"Bank papers mostly Amory named you and your brother as the sole heirs to his estate There is quite a bit in there, it should be plenty to travel with" She pulled a piece of paper from the bottom of the stack

I sat back on the bed, stunned while staring at the balance to one of Ah the rest of the papers finding nu obscene amounts of money and stockholder slips to hundreds of different stocks on all of the bigmy attention to the different plastic cards that had my name imprinted on the bottoelica said softly, as if having to call up courage just to say his name, or speak of his memory "Most of us are wealthy, I should say, but Aevity and a knack for investing well You will not need to worry about ain, my dear This one," she held up a black key card absent of writing or syet you into the Swiss vault That's where the paintings and artifacts are held The rest, I think, are just different credit or debit cards If you use a credit card, the balance is automatically paid at the end of theabout that"

I wanted to ask her ould happen if I exceeded the balance of the account, but couldn't even wrap my head around the a the total amount in ten lifetimes, let alone in the next few months

I pulled out my wallet and slipped the cards into the empty slots that only ever housed the one credit card Aunt Syl gave ot my driver's license, then tuckedthe wallet inleft to pack I was ready to go

"I can hold on to those for you, dear," Angelica took the loose papers back frohtened theo, or an ear to listen, I will always be here for you Always" She turned to ers that were cold to the touch Her eyes flickered for aviolet that had once been the light in her eyes, but then it was gone and they settled back into the deep purple of

"Thank you," I replied with the deepest sincerity, and then braced o "Angelica" I faltered for athat happened I wish that I could I hate that You were right" I couldn't even finish a thought, let alone a sentence and then suddenly I was a broken child in front of the ancient wo in her lifetis and then my soul with the breaths only breathed inhme absently, while her own tears stained the back of my head

"Eden, I don't blame you," she insisted firmly, but still I could not sit up and look at her "No one blames you And you shouldn't blaedy of the worst kind, but it was not your fault That , has done this before and he will do it again He has no regard for the sanctity of life or for his people What you need to do now is not cry over circued, but succeed Go on, child, and win this war The future of your people is left in your hands and you alone hold the keys to a kingdom without the scars of this life You can save us You can vindicate your grandfather's death and restore thein self pity Move forward; find the strength to carry on"

I sat up and looked at her The tears stopped flowing and ht I must reoing to want to keep this covered though," she touched the glowing tattoo of the snake curled around and eating its own tail It was the symbol of the Resistance, of the rebellion that was reduced to this old wo, didn't I?" I led curls, pulling the the blue ink

"Well, yes" she s in her dark eyes "I still don't understand how you were able to mark yourself Youto the painful process of ad the mark Resistance inductees were always strapped down and unable toout due to the severe pain the process caused I was not like the other inductees; I did it to reed "I still am"

"Good" She kept her sain "Re, I aelica, thank you for everything," I whispered, genuinely

"Be careful" She ignored ratitude and walked me to the front door of Amory's house