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And yet they cah someone wanted to enuine Why should they be so eager if it's the real thing?

It isn't the real thing anyway Even if she wrote it in her own blood, it isn't the real thing because they made her write it She'd written before, and they didn't let any of those letters through Those ht have been real, but this was asked for, this was part of their manipulation

And the despair filled hiain Now he knehy Now he knehat he hated soThey a else was therao this way or that way in battle The one real thing, the one precious real thing was his memory of Valentine, the person who loved hiaer war or not, and they had taken her and put her on their side She was one of them now

He hated thea Val's eain The other boys in Phoenix Ar? That was disturbing So on The best soldier in any ar The silence in

the room was deep

Ender deleted the letter, wiped it out of aet to the End of the World, but he wasted no ti over the autumnal colors of the pastoral world, only then did he realize what he hated most about Val's letter All that it said was about Peter About hoas not at all like Peter The words she had said so often as she held hi after Peter had tortured him, that was all that the letter had said

And that hat they had asked for The bastards knew about that, and they knew about Peter in theand to them Val was just one more tool to use to control hiht, they were the eneoing to do what they wanted, he was da for the, and those bastards had plowed it into him with the rest of theto play

As always the serpent waited in the tower roo on the floor But this tiht it in his hands, knelt before it, and gently, so gently, brought the snake's gaping mouth to his lips

And kissed

He had not meant to do that He had meant to let the snake bite him on the mouth Or perhaps he had meant to eat the snake alive, as Peter in the mirror had done, with his bloody chin and the snake's tail dangling from his lips But he kissed it instead

And the snake in his hands thickened and bent into another shape A huain

The snake could not be Valentine He had killed it too often for it to be his sister Peter had devoured it too often for Ender to bear it that it

Was this what they planned when they let him read her letter? He didn't care

She arose from the floor of the tower rooure also rise and go with her They stood before the mirror, where instead of Peter's cruel reflection there stood a dragon and a unicorn Ender reached out his hand and touched the mirror and so did Valentine; the wall fell open and revealed a great stairway doard, carpeted and lined with shouting, cheering ether, arm in arm, he and Valentine walked down the stairs Tears filled his eyes, tears of relief that at last he had broken free of the room at the End of the World And because of the tears, he didn't notice that every member of the multitude wore Peter's face He only knew that wherever he went in this world, Valentine ith him

Valentine opened the letter that Dr Lineberry had given her "Dear Valentine," it said, "We thank you and commend you for your efforts on behalf of the war effort You are hereby notified that you have been awarded the Star of the Order of the League of Huhest ive to a civilian Unfortunately, IF security forbids us to make this award public until after the successful conclusion of current operations, but ant you to know that your efforts resulted in coos"