Blackfeather Woods i like irons, but i love fire

Maegi pursed her lips, thinking. Hmmm, she murmured. Her eyes drifted up the walls of the Glen, toward the woods as a whole. I think we need to get rid of everything that illustrates what we once were, she said, glancing toward Ramsay after a moment. Any weird bones left on the borders, any signs that the wolves that did all those bad things still live here.

The girl thought of Flicker, and the woman's insistence to bring her to Damien. But she wasn't going to Damien. Damien was part of what once was, and Maegi would no longer associate herself with those wolves and those dark deeds. Mephala, the Dark Brotherhood. . .it was all dead to her. She wanted to make a life of her own, a life with her brother, her best friend, and her beloved forest.

She turned to fully face her brother, then, resolve etched into the lines of her young face. We're not them, she declared softly. We're better than them. Always have been. So let's leave them behind. They're the past—we're the future.

fade here?