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Prologue

AUREN

Ten years ago

The sky doesn’t sing here

It doesn’t dance or play, it doesn’t sink against h my hair with a fresh kiss

Not like it did in Annwyn

The rain weeps down, and water floods the ground, but even that doesn’t sweep away the stench of this place The sun dips and the oddesses slushell stars This horizon is tepid and lacking

Nothing feels as alive here as it did at home But then, irl Maybe Annasn’t like that at all, and I’ve forgotten

If I have, I’d rather keep pretending I like the way it is inwith a vivaciousness that saturated my every sense

Here, ood way

Derfort Harbor is still drenched froed from either the sea or the sky Sole wood-pitched roof that isn’t sodden or a weathered door that isn’t peeling from the oppressive moisture

The clouds often pull in stor cleansing about the rain, though It si of fish while it floods the muddy streets

The air is claggy today with a hus I’ll be lucky if ht, lucky ifother than damp and frizzed