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"Kel? Tosti? Urtan? Beor?"

"I don’t knohat becah Adica had gone and the Hallowed One, a detached, unapproachable woman he didn’t really know, had kidnapped her form and noalked the Earth in his beloved Adica’s body

The sun’s lower rim touched the horizon

"Alain" Her voice, so sweet to his ears

He turned She had coht, with the stones behind her and the fighting raging all around Every last soul had gone down to try to stem the Cursed Ones, just for this one final hour That was all she needed now

Weeping, he caught her by the arm "Must you do this, Adica? Ai, God How can I bear it?"

"Think how many will die if we do not succeed Think how er flared at last "My heart grieves to leave you, Alain You kno much I do love you But don’t stand into selfishness My life does not belong toto you either"

"You lied toback tears, she kissed him "I couldn’t bear to see you unhappy"

She kissed hihtly around hi above her as though they would touch the heavens She walked to the calling ground She set her feet in that chalk circle, with her head raised proudly as the light waned and twilight crept up the eastern sky, although the last purple-rose ot sun’s glow lingered in the west The bowl of night began to fill up with darkness The last glint of the setting sun caught and tangled in her shining antlers, er hu But had her lie been any different than the one he had spoken to the dying Lavastine? She had only wanted to spare him pain and fear

He broke forward to come up behind her "So be it Then I’ll die with you" Behind hie whined

Her back stiffened, tensing as she heard his words She did not answer, but neither did she tell him to leave The first star winked alive in the dusk sky, brilliant Soli breath, she raised her ht Stars bloomed quickly now, as if in haste, and with her staff she wove theh the soles of his feet he heard the keening of the ancient queens and the cries of anguish froht in the stones and tangled into a co on the cusp between Healer and Penitent