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Susebron didn’t write a response, but instead wrapped his arood to be held against hiood

After a few ain, aardly erasing first I rong, you know

"About what?"

About one of the things I said earlier I wrote that my mother was the only person to ever show me love and kindness That’s not true There’s been another

He stopped writing and looked at her Then he glanced at the board again You didn’t have to showyou froht me to read, befriended me Loved me

He stared at her She stared at him Then, hesitant, he leaned down and kissed her

Oh, dearSiri thought, a dozen objections popping into her head She found it difficult toother than kiss him back

She felt hot She knew that they needed to stop, lest the priesthood get exactly what they aiting for She understood all of these things Yet those objections began to seerew more hurried

He paused, obviously uncertain what to do next Siri looked up at hiain, feeling her hair bleed to a deep, passionate red

At that point, she stopped caring about anything else Susebron didn’t knohat to do But she did I really aht as she pulled off her shift I need to get better at controlling my impulses

Sohtsong drea dead and of soldiers in the streets Of Lifeless killing people in colorful clothing

And of a black sword

46

Vivenna choked down her ly of fish, but she had learned that by breathing through her nore much of the flavor She ate every bite, then washed the taste aith a few mouthfuls of warm boiled water

She was alone in the roo near the sluh he wasn’t there at the

She leaned back, food consu her eyes She’d reached the point where she was so exhausted that she actually found it difficult to sleep The fact that the room was so small didn’t help She couldn’t even stretch out all the way

Vasher hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said that their ould be rigorous Stop after stop, she spoke with the Idrians, consoling the them not to push Hallandren to war There were no restaurants as there had been with Denth No dinners with roup of tired, working-class e number of them didn’t even live in the slums But they were part of the Idrian community in T’Telir, and they could influence how their friends and family felt

She liked them Empathized with them She felt far better about her new efforts than she had about her ith Denth, and so far as she could tell, Vasher was being honest with her She had decided to trust those instincts That was her decision, and that decisionVasher, for now

Vasher didn’t ask her if she wanted to continue He si her to keep up And so she did, iveness, despite how e it was She wasn’t certain if she could repair what she had done, but she illing to try This deterain her soiven than Denth’s respect had been

Denth was fooling me the entire time It was still hard to remember that fact Part of her didn’t want to She leaned forward, staring at the bland wall in front of her in the boxlike roo herself so hard lately It kept her fros

Who was she? How did she define herself now that everything she’d been, and everything she’d tried, had collapsed around her? She couldn’t be Vivenna the confident princess anymore That person was dead, left behind in that cellar with Parlin’s bloody corpse Her confidence had come from naïveté

Now she kne easily she had been played She knew the cost of ignorance, and she had glirim truths of real poverty

Yet, she also couldn’t be that woman--the waif of the streets, the thief, the beaten-doretch That wasn’t her She felt as if those weeks had been a dreaht on by the stress of isolation and trau suffocated by disease To pretend that was the real her would be to parody those who truly lived on the streets The people she’d hidden a and tried to imitate

Where did that leave her? Was she the penitent, quiet princess who knelt with bowed head, pleading with the peasants? This, too, was partially an act She really did feel sorry However, she was using her stripped pride as a tool That wasn’t her

Who was she?

She stood up, feeling crahborhood outside wasn’t quite a slum, but it wasn’t rich either It was sih colors along to street to be welcos were small and held a nu the street, careful not to stray too far fro their blooms

Who was she really? What was left, when one stripped away the princess and the hatred of Hallandren? She was determined That part of her, she liked She’d forced herself to beco She’d worked hard, sacrificing, to reach her goal

She was also a hypocrite Now she knehat it was to be truly humble Coant than any colorful skirt or shirt