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Pride made her smooth the confusion from her face She dipped into a curtsy and so against the inside of her ribcage like knuckles on a door

She held her head high and walked away, down the corridor, blind to the beings she passed Thoughts broke apart and came

together in different arrangements, like pieces of a puzzle, but none fit

What had just happened? Was Seke saying good-bye?

Really? After what they’d shared?

Surely not

And yet, no other answer seemed to fit She found her way to her chamber, which she hadn’t been in for four planet rotations The once-familiar room seemed so different now

No, she was different

Seke had changed her

Andleft her? Vecking left her? After what they’d been through? The things he’d done to her?

A great treh her body Like an earthquake, splitting her open, sending cracks and fissures in all directions She pulled her robes around her ether to keep the

This couldn’t be

She felt like a vecking fool An idiotic, vecking fool

Falling on the bed, she opened her

She was broken beyond repair