Northstar Vale Give them nothing, take from them everything.

If they had met before, Leona had also forgotten.

Her mind was busy with other things. Her heart ached in a way she could not put words to, for places that were still close-by and yet, seemed so very far and obscured from her now.

The girl who visited, she was little. She was maybe half the size of Leona, and fine-boned, not like the heavy-set children of Mereo; this one would not do well in the training ring, Leona thought. Her green-eyed stare was lackluster as she turned it upon them.

Hi. She went on to answer. Her own voice was sharper, edged with something cold, as she tried hard to stow her feelings. Leona was a soldier — in training yes, and far from her tutors — but she saw now the value of performative indifference, the likes of which had been commonplace among the adults of Mereo.