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The people rustle hopefully, ive up the strangeness of the sirens for so new

"This is what I want to speak about with you today," Nevio says "We must prepare for the third miracle We must be ready" He speaks of sacrifice, and love, and duty, and of the relationship between the Above and the Below and the i the rules set forth by the Council I stop listening, because I have heard the sa said before, and much better, by my mother

What if I am the last siren?

What does that mean?

As people exit the temple after the ser with animation and excitement about the when and where and how of the third miracle I don’t move This ishas been wrong since she died

Why is she gone?

How did she die?

Who made it happen?

Nevio could have done it

Or was it Maire?

It’s not a thought I want to have, but it won’t leave me

Could Maire tell me if I really am the last siren?

I don’t knoho to trust

I hear footsteps on the stairs, and then soallery Justus He comes and sits down next toof my mother, too

"When you were a candidate for Minister," I ask hiht in all the sirens to test you?"

"I could resist all of them except for one," Justus says

"Maire," I say

Justus closes his eyes "The words she spoke," he whispers "The way she said them" He opens his eyes "She s she said"

"Terrible things?"

"Wonderful things," Justus says, and a flicker of remembered happiness crosses his face "But none of it was true, and when I realized that, I wept When the Council saw the effect Maire’s words had onMinister"

My heart goes out to Justus He always loved my mother Bay and I knew it, and so did my mother, but she didn’t love him back, not that way I wonder what Maire said to hi the Minister," Justus says "In the end she brought down Oceana, too Right before she died, your mother tried to reconcile with Maire, and look how she was rewarded"