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But I didn’t addto the wind I sent Vane My melodies were silenced the day my father died

It felt like a piece of ether the lullabies, but Vane deserves a last night of peace He has a heavy burden resting on his shoulders--far heavier than the tasks resting on mine The next few days will be the hardest of his life

It surprises me how easy it is to empathize with hi hi that his life is more important than my father’s More important than mine I worried it would be hard to be civil once ere forced to interact

And he ischallenging--but not always in the ways I expected Soht are a mystery to me Like my hesitation to tell hinment Or the times I was moved to touch him

His arm

His lips

Why did I do that? I never intended to do that

Had it been pity?

I want that to be the answer--but it doesn’t explain why my skin still si the way he held ely empty Almost like

I staht before it can finish

Whatever those feelings are, I’ll squelch thes any more than he already has

Gavin nips at entle way of reray feathers along his back He can be a de creature, but he’s my best friend And he’s the only one who doesn’t hate rate north, just to stay with me So I tolerate his difficulties Even when he leaves a half-eaten rabbit on the floor

My stoh er we go without eating, the more our stouardians end up giving in at least once a year to stop the hunger pains

Not me And after ten years, my stomach had all but shrunk away

Now the water’s revived rueso dates on the floor teer sparks, but I snuff it out I deserve every hardship, every discoht as well have ended that day in the storh I’ll always feel like I stole it

I can still feelintothat I took the only part of him she had left That he shouldn’t have chosen me over her

I still don’t knohy he did

The whispered e he sent with it leftAudra

He’d wantedthe wisdoy flood my mind as the tears streamed down my face and the last wisps of my father drifted aith the squalls

I vowed then and there that I’d finish what he started Becoer than anyone ever thought he could be, so he can end Raiden’s reign of terror

And now I’ll protect the innocent people in these arid cities fro for help is my duty

ButI can’t seem to make myself do it

I don’t have a safe way to contact the Gale Force on uardians are allowed to have--and since I know everything there is to know about Vane Weston, they tellfurther

It’s a safety o, when Raiden captured two of our best None of us know the full horrors he put theh--but he broke them And learned the Gale’s deepest secret That Vane survived the attack that killed his parents all those years ago

But he didn’t learn where we’d hidden hian

That’s when I finally beca," and had to report to ress Even then, the Gales worried the pressure was too e and tried to force me to take breaks from my duties But I always snuck back to watch Vane I couldn’t risk that so would happen in the time I ay And once Raiden knew Vane was alive, the Gales could stall er Vane needed constant protection, and I was the best Gale available I’uardian by far, but no one can match my skill and deterainst

My mother’s

Not because she worried for o to her and explain what afor help