Overture Downs winds of east

unspoken. unheard. slender sentiment existing in swiftcurrent eyes was enough to limn him in cold. dread. gheli's face danced before his eyes. red leaf's anger burned in his ears. sun eater — cen — had set himself apart. not even carnality was something he pursued, for in the arms of women he had only ever lost himself.

fractured essence of who he was, sun eater had tried to recapture it from his sharadoii wife. but gheli had died and taken some part of him with her. ghaden as well, swallowed by a river which he had always loved.

now there stood again a chance and he found himself wanting to seize its opportunity. did he not deserve?

yet there was an edict here, one he himself had set. the laws of saatsine were clear.

his body had relaxed in knowing, but for a moment sun eater dared not glance into the face of morwenna lest she see the same unuttered things standing stark in his single eye. only when it had passed did he meet the creek woman's gaze. "your chieftain. he not mind we speak?"