Swiftcurrent Creek Promise in the dark you'll be my nightlight

His light shone.

He had a hard time believing that when he considered himself and the life he had lived, but when he heard it spoken from his sister’s lips, he almost believed he could.

Like a tree, he swayed with untrained paws, as she moved like fire around him. She held beauty in her step. Mystery. Similar to the sister he’d known before Rose had… before she had left them, but in a way, so very…

… different.

And finally, she unravelled why.

And piece by piece, his own puzzle clicked together.

He stayed silent for her, listening, watching, hearing, seeing, this whirlwind his sister had already gone through, this strange new life she had already begun to build.

This was where his sister had been running.

Is this what Tybault had tried to take her from?

Sorrows and grief and songs of love he didn’t understand — and some he didn’t agree with — and some he wished to rescue Ophe — no, Reverie, from.

They could start over.

They could start over.

They could start over.

He needed time to think.

I wouldn’t, either, he finally said, and then — I had a vision, Reverie, her name felt strange, but to finally have a name to call her again — he felt the warmth like a secret shared between children, not of anything from the Gilded Sea, but — of something different. Someone, I… I think, she would think him crazy. Would she think him crazy? I followed it here. Him. A golden bird. Followed it to you.

In whispers, they spoke, in whispers, she would share that she had seen the bird, too. They would spend the time together and then, would go their ways.

And Everett was left to wonder at the meaning of it all.