Phoenix Maplewood But I'm here to remind you what's lost is never gone

What force drove Saena to return? She wondered that as she approached the edge of the maple forest and drew up, hesitating. It was no longer home. It no longer felt like home. Yet the draw that the fragrant woods had on her whenever she so much as looked at it was inexorable, and she was helpless to fight it. It was surely how Warbone must feel whenever he beheld his former claim, thought Saena, as she plunged into the shadow of her former abode.

It was just as she had left it, and even more pristine without the memory of Grace tainting the experience. She strode slowly along game trails, towpaths, and wider swaths of wild forest, drinking in the scent of her former home. She knew she came for the last time. Even if Saena wanted to leave the mountains and visit her former home each and every day, dark thoughts lay in wait here. The maplewood was poisoned by the pain of her past. She could never return to it again, not without weakening her claim on the vale or further dredging up a past she was trying to leave behind, so she spent some time in it now, to say her final farewells.

She didn't go to the den she'd left behind as she had last time. Instead, Saena sought a narrow brook near the center of the woods. It held no significance to her personally, but was a landmark she'd passed many a time when she'd lived here. It would serve as a good place to be alone with her thoughts, without being too sentimental or emotional, until she was ready to bid the maplewood adieu for the last time.