Emberwood Closeness breeds familiarity

He was so kind, this brother she didn't truly know; should have known. So thoughtful. With a small gasp Reverie surrendered to her tears and his embrace. The moment was oddly surreal; she half-expected to wake any moment and find that it was all a dream, and Sven was still just a boy and Gunnar waiting for her at Kvarsheim with open arms.

Even that was a cruel fantasy in its way. Gunnar, forever waiting for a daughter who would not come home. Not in time. Reverie clung tightly to Sven, unable to answer for long moments as she sobbed into his fur.

I - I can't - Voice not breaking so much as crumbling now; I can't lose him, I can't, I can't and he's - he's already gone. I've had time. Gone, and she hadn't been there. She'd never said goodbye. She'd never told him just how much he meant to her, how he'd changed everything, how she owed all that she had now to the love and wisdom he'd given so freely. If not for him she surely would have died in this valley long ago.

But Gunnar had always had a way of knowing things. So she hoped that somehow, he knew.