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“As you will, brother,” she said, stepping back

He stared down at it, seeing the way the surface seeht, suddenly uncertain You don’t knohat this thing is! he had said I looked into that worldand sory Touch it once and receive a gift

He raised a hand, extending it to the stone, letting it hover over the surface, al? The Ally’s gift?

“Alucius told aze She held her blanket tight, blinking as the wind drove tears fro across her pale skin like e, his last iveness for not telling retted, but that was the worst And he told me not to hate, Vaelin He said there was sufficient hate in this world and he wanted to look at me from the Beyond and see at least one soul untouched by it But I couldn’tThey killed him, and I hated them, and I burned them”

“You did e all did, sister,” he said “You, the queen, Reva, FrentisAlucius and CaenisThe wo”

He looked down at the stone and withdrew his hand His thoughts were full of one, soht of the battles he had fought and the brothers he had lost, and he thought of Dahrena You are my Beyond now For me to endure, so h to split the stone down to its base It fell apart, thuht it down, again and again, heaving with tireless fury as a cloud of black dust rose around him Some drifted away on the wind but for thein the fast rising sun When the last fragathered up in the canvas and cast over the side The stain of it roiled their wake, lingering for only seconds before fading completely as they sailed on, carried home by the westerly winds