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A neorlda shadowed landscape of smoke and ash The Choke I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard enough to iine it The land is flat, pocked with craters fro bombs Soldiers in stained red unifor a wound I float through the for the brothers I lost to s with a blue-clad Lakelander in a puddle ofuntil he’s out of sight Tra to keep hientle features, so like Gisa’s, are twisted in agony I will never forget the screams of pain and frustration As with Bree, I can’t help him

Shade waits at the front of the line, beyond even the bravest of warriors He stands on top of a ridge without regard for the bo on the other side He even has the gall to sround beneath his feet explodes, destroying hie to screa for the smoke that was onceinto the shadow It engulfs ain Dad co home half-dead Kilorn’s conscription Gisa’s hand They blur together, a swirl of too-bright color that hurts ht Themy life in reverse And then there are events I can’t possibly re me between them while Mom scolds This is impossible

"Impossible," the shadow says to ht crackhat feels like concrete

And then they’re gone My brothers, one Concrete and steel bars rise aroundhead as things coure stares at litters on her head

"I’d bow, but I ht fall over," I say to Queen Elara, and immediately I wish I could call back the words She’s a Silver, I can’t talk to her that way She could put me in the stocks, take away rowing horror She’s the queen She could just kill me She could kill us all

But she doesn’t look offended Instead, she smirks A wave of nausea washes over ain

"That looks like a bow to e to vorab the bars My fist clenches around cold steel "What are you doing toanyh the bars to touch ainst the bars, barely conscious enough to hold on "This is to keep you fro my eyes but I shake thee to spit out I can hardly think through the pain, let alone be polite, but still I e to hold back a streaue

"Like electrocute soth to ainst the cool stone wall, her words sink in Electrocute

The ed pieces Evangeline, the lightning shield, the sparks, and me It’s not possible

"You are not Silver Your parents are Red, you are Red, and your blood is red," the queen e "You are aeven I can’t understand, and I have seen all of you"

"That was you?" I alain "You were in htmares?"