Otter Creek It always runs back but it's never quite the same

They're not mine, Maegi said automatically, as if that. . .oh, absolved her for their absence. It didn't. They were still gone under her watch, no matter the blood they did or did not share. She grimaced, and looked away, only returning her gaze to Takiyok when the woman spoke again.

How do you know Mahler? She gave a half-smile in wry remembrance. He split his face open when the earth shook, one day, she said, shaking her head in some reproach. I gave him some healing and sent him on his way. I mostly was just curious because one of your packmates, Kazimir, helped me at the border when I was looking for—

Sobek. Say it. 'My missing son.' Except he was missing now, too, right? Missing forever.

It wouldn't change anything. He was missing before. Despite missing—

damn it—

. . .my missing son, she finished, voice like wind through reeds: barely there, hardly stable.