Page 109 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
My very soul shied away from that answer, and the woman and child in the deepest part of me threw up their hands to cover their eyes.
I almost missed it. The wisp.
The wisp was such a minuscule shimmer, barely a mist. I inched my face forward to inhale the wisp, and even then the flavor of the wisp was hard to decipher.
Ingredients?
Ingredients.
Ingredients.
The ingredients could be changed to achieve the same result.
The healing was the result.
The healing must be made up ofenough. And what was “enough”? Enough of a loving union, or respect and understanding and loyalty?
The flavor burst through my taste buds and self, the knowledge contained in the wisp unlocked by a simple sequence of questions.
The wisp offered a great connection indeed.
Ah.
Butah.
Chapter Thirty
Here was a test?
Here was the heart of us.
Exactly what
Did a seeing king
See?
Idwelled longer amongst hellebores in a grave tonight. Or this dawn.
When I climbed out with my champions in tow, my eyes immediately swung to where Molly had lived in death.
No longer.Now Molly had met her final death, or her daughter in death. I would not know until my own end, whether that would be in mere days or never.
Grief of the night’s work had wearied me in body, mind, and soul. For while I only had to accept the departure of a mother to loosen her stitch from my body, when I did so, I did so with the knowledge that they would be forever gone.
I hadchosento say goodbye to eight motherstonight. Goodbye to eight ancestors. Eight mentors and protectors who had helped to make me.
My heart was heavy indeed, and heavier still because…
“The scales are tipping!” Marchioness Take cried out to the others. “Some veins are spontaneously healing.”
The pawns broke out into a stream of questions, some of them clapping too.
The scales must be tipping—she was correct. I could think of no other reason that other veins were healing without the presence and work of me and my champions. I had just felt the tug of a stitch and answered its call.
I had chosen to say goodbye to eight mothers.
I had not chosen to say goodbye to six more. I had not watched them battle the black ruin. I had not remained by their side.
