Blackfeather Woods sometimes it seems to me as if i'm just being used

Finally, she came upon someone--the gray boy, whom she scarcely saw. Who'd been kind to her, in her early days. Oh, what was his name. . .? Maegi's face scrunched for a moment, trying to remember, before relaxing as she gave him a curt nod, letting slip the only sound that came to mind. "Neo," she greeted, her voice pitched low.

The tone was still girlish, to be sure, but it rang hollow, not like tiny, musical bells, like it used to. No longer was the child full of whimsy and wonder; no, there was solemnity clogging every pore, ice carved into every fiber of her being. She was a girl whose heart had frozen over, alone in the woods, with no one to talk to save spirits.

"How are you?" Maegi said mechanically, padding over to sit close to where he stood. Her mismatched eyes drilled into his bright blues. "I haven't seen you since everybody came back." Where she'd had to bear the awful news of her father's and brothers' foray outside the Woods, when she'd learned Vaati had left, too.

So much had changed. . .and none of it for the better.