Blackfeather Woods I felt your shadow on the way home.

She watched him scribble, brow furrowed. It didn't mean much to her—just a circle. A circle with. . .fronds? Flower? she guessed (wrongly, of course). Yet it still led to the correct reasoning: So there were flowers, still? They weren't dead? It's been a while. . . It made sense. He'd left in the summer.

He'd left her in the summer, but perhaps for a valid reason. Maegi still found it hard to forgive him, but she was warming up to the idea. Especially if his heart had been in the right place.

The Nona sighed, her trembling beginning to cease as she grew used to the situation. Are you going to stay? she asked bluntly, staring at him with eyes that suggested this homecoming must be his last. She would accept him into her home no more after this. Maegi didn't take kindly to those who kept leaving.

(Despite her own history of doing just that. But, you know. . .details. . .)