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Sevro lurches forward and grabs hi about?”

The Ash Lord smiles at him, their faces inches apart “You are like me, in the end I spent my children for my war And now, so have you”

Sevro’s grip goes slack

“Your daughter” He looks at me “And your son They have been taken”

No

My fingers curl around the wood post of this rottedinside me The whisper of forhtet my human delusions and see the world for as cold a place as it really is Dark, holloind channels through my heart and I know I have lost I left my boy behind

“You’re lying,” Sevro whispers

We’re each in our little worlds of dread, each sinking into the darkness, each unable to grasp, to believe that he is telling the truth This is the spite of a dying man That is all it can be That is all I can accept

“You’re lying,” Sevro says again His face is milk pale

But he’s not There is too much satisfaction in him

“Was it you?” I whisper

“If only It was one of yours”

“Who?”

The Ash Lord watches e head to look away froht sea, where his spirit has already fled “Lorn was right,” he says in a rough whisper “The bill comes at the end”

“Who took my son?” I shout “Who?”