Moonsong Glacier sikingilak

In Callyope’s presence, he began to understand why the world had taken so much from him. What he lost in his family remained a heavy blow, but the pain softened in his starflower’s light. For what he gained in her was already so much greater than anything he had asked the heavens to give him as he wandered alone through the corridors of the shadowed Weald.

She shared fragments of her purpose here, and though Melaneus did not fully understand, he had long surmised in their days together that there would be many things about Callyope he would not understand. But he could listen, and he could try, as much as he knew she would do for him.

He gazed upon the moon touched glacier. Their shadows cut long silhouettes across the ground.

I will, he said, and while his skin prickled with a sense of unease, he looked to her, composed as his breath billowed around the air between them, as close as you will let me be.