Honestly, he felt a little guilty—bringing up things like this when everyone seemed relaxed. But he couldn’t let something like that stop him from getting answers; he knew that everyone would prefer that he asked questions if he had them. So he compiled his final list, took a deep breath, and then prompted,

  “Jasmin, Kiara, is it alright if we talk now..?”

  Kiara nodded. “We don’t have anywhere to be or anything else to do. If there’s something on your mind, you can tell us. I know you’ve probably still got a lot of questions…”

  “I can’t claim to know all the answers,” Jasmin remarked, “but I’ll try my best.”

  Loraena placed a hand on Astyu’s and gave him a small smile of comfort. “Go on. Remember that I’m here for you—we all are. You can take breaks if you need to, too. None of us are going anywhere.”

  “Thank you—all of you. I know I probably wouldn’t be here without Loraena, and I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t know that Jasmin and Kiara had the answers. So… I’m glad you’re all here, and willing to help. I feel a lot better already just knowing that.” Astyu managed a smile of his own, then turned back to his list. “I… was wondering something about the group. Mother had another friend. Brynn, right? Obviously she’s not here, and I’ve never heard from her again in Yllvamel, so where did she go..? Jasmin mentioned her earlier, but I never heard what happened…”

  Jasmin sighed. “I suppose you could say she was a bit like your mother. Brynn was fascinated with Mávri Mageía, ready to do whatever it took to see how far she could push it. I don’t know what her end goal was for joining us, ultimately… but I can only imagine it had something to do with her own gain, though it may have just as easily been harmless. After Eme died, and I had made it clear that we were no longer going to try to tame Mávri Mageía—or even touch it, seeing what it had done to us—Brynn went off on her own. While what exactly happened to her were only rumors, I understand that she fell too deep. She lost herself to Mávri Mageía and paid the price for it.”

  A long pause, and then he mumbled, “Sorry…”

  “No need to apologize. Everything in that time was a learning experience—a list of things we best not repeat. There were a lot of consequences for it, but… it told us what we should avoid in the future. It gave us a clear reminder of what we were attempting to tame, and how much of a truly wild beast it was.” Jasmin still gained a small frown, though—one that seemed much darker, just by the way her nature seemed to darken things.

  Astyu reminded himself that there were no such things as bad questions, especially not right now. He shouldn’t feel bad for wanting answers; he should just be ready to get them, no matter what they ended up being.

  And so, he continued. “Do you… know anything else about my father..? Mother talked about him, a little, but she didn’t tell me much… said I was too young for some of it. Only ever talked about how amazing he was…”

  Kiara was the one to answer. “I don’t think Eme liked talking about Leadner all that much. It seemed to hurt her just to think about it. From what I can remember, though, he also dabbled in Mávri Mageía—it’s how the two of them met, and what ultimately led to his death. The details weren’t something she was too fond of sharing, however. And despite the part of her that drove her to do what she did, that told her that she needed to bring him back… I think she understood that what she was doing likely wouldn’t help. She loved him, but that didn’t stop her from caring about you.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “But… she didn’t really choose me in the end. At least, that’s definitely not what it feels like…”

  Jasmin shook her head. “What she did, she did for you. The truth of the matter was, she was already far too gone in order to completely reverse her path. By the time we stopped, someone was going to end up paying the price for what we did. Eme was driven by desperation. She thought that it was the only thing she could do. She saw that both options led to death and, though her fear sometimes delayed her first step, she always did what she thought would lead to the best… She thought what we were doing could bring her family back together then, in the end, thought that she might be able to use what she learned to at least keep you from being alone.”

  “Couldn’t you have done anything? If the two of you are still here, even if Mother and Brynn are gone, that means you’ve done something, right? Was there any way you could’ve helped—no, saved—her..?”

  “By all other accounts, I should be the only one among us remaining—the only one that was somehow able to evade the punishment of the gods. It was by a sheer act of desperation that Kiara is still with me.”

  Slowly, Kiara nodded. “If there was one thing that led to your mother’s death, it was the fact she kept looking to the past for answers. She stayed there—worked towards bringing the person closest to her from the past into the present, because she thought it would make things better. I know it’s probably hard to accept, but… nothing can change the past. There’s no point in even suggesting that something could, because that’s exactly what she did, and that’s exactly what led to her end. She’d want you to look towards the future and take advantage of what’s in front of you now.”

  “She… she would,” Astyu mumbled. “Even if she expected me to want to find answers at some point, she would’ve wanted me to move on. That’s just what I have to do…”

  “And remember, you’re not going to be walking this path on your own,” Loraena said. “You’ll have all of us with you, every step of the way.”

  He was even able to manage a smile. “Yeah. Thanks.” He turned his attention back to Jasmin and Kiara. “So, I guess, one of the only other questions I really wanted answered… What about the two of you? Is there… ever a chance I’m going to see you in Yllvamel again?”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Jasmin shook her head as she said it. “There’s no reason for us to be there anymore—it’s best to leave it in the past where it belongs. Besides, I know that our reputation there was… rocky at best. I wouldn’t want to disrupt anything that’s going on, just to see what had happened in my absence. I don’t need to be there to know it must’ve gotten even better than when we’d left.”

  “But if you’d like… I wouldn’t mind hearing about what’s new,” Kiara remarked. “Maybe it was just because of all the time we spent there, but I think I grew a soft spot for it. I’d like to know how the little town is doing, if you’re willing to share. Oh, and try to be as descriptive as possible. And that goes for you, too, Loraena—I want to hear both of your experiences. Perhaps hearing something good is just how we need to close things off here.”

  something will be posted until I get my backlog back.