Duck Lake Girl use me while you can, I’m all yours

Absentminded, absent even in soul. There was no reason for him to be there, not really. Perhaps it was the memories, distant thoughts of better times, that drew him there; he couldn’t be sure, to evaluate his situation required more time and effort than he could afford to give. But he was there, all the same, either way, no reason making him more inclined to stay than another. Something grounded him there, the scene of the lake glistening as its surface held fast to the flakes coating it, his gaze falling out of focus—

—and then refocusing just as swiftly as his sights previously failed him, ears pricked atop his head as a voice drifted past them.

We failed her.

He couldn’t recognise the voice, his octaves dropped since his childhood, yet somehow he knew even before looking who it was: Marten. His first son and the last of them to remain, as far as he was aware; he was the only boy—no, the only child—that Indra had ever mentioned was still around back when…

“You didn’t,” he called back, turning his head to watch the boy. “I was the one to fail her. Her and Laurel both.” Marten couldn’t carry that with him, not when he wasn’t at fault. No one was, only Xan—it was all his fault, that wouldn’t change.