It’s enough. I shivered again. I had forgotten to put on a cloak.

We will all be gone, one after the other. There will be no sons. It is your children, and his, that will inherit Sevenwaters.

“Don’t say that!” I spoke aloud, sharply. “Don’t tempt fate! You cannot know everything.”

Some things I know. He retreated into silence again, his eyes turned far away, beyond the lake, out into the west.

Some time later, men came for Conor. Two very old men, traveling on foot. Their hair was in many small braids, and they wore silver collars around their necks, and robes that moved fluidly about their spare frames. This was the call for which he had been waiting. I found it hard to believe, at first, that he could desert our household so easily, for he had always been there, the voice of balance and reason, the brother who had the power to moderate between the others, the one who had possessed the strength of will to draw his brothers after him to Harrowfield, across the wide sea, to be healed at last. But it was his calling. For he could not learn the ancient lore, the mystic crafts, and at the same time up hold family and truth. He must go forth into the forests and the deep caves, beyond the reach and the knowledge of ordinary folk. There would be years, many years of study and practice, tefore he became one of the brotherhood.

It seemed to me the eyes of these two old ones looked on my brother with deep respect, novice though he was. Had he not spent the test part of three years as a creature of the wild, and held onto his human consciousness ad that time? Did he not, already, possess considerable skids as manipulator of the elements, as instigator of blinding mist, and capricious wind? It was late perhaps, but not too late to begin his years of discipline. He would become strong; one of the strongest of his kind. I honored him for it, but that did not lessen the pain of losing him.

He said his goodbyes in the hall, embracing first Father, then Liam, clapping Donal on the back, ruffling Padriac’s hair. Red he clasped by the shoulder.

“Watch over my sister,” he said. “Keep her safe.”

But Finbar and I walked with him to the edge of the forest, and stood there to watch him go. The two old men waited quietiy. Conor did not touch Finbar, but he spoke to him and I heard his words. Be strong, brother. You too have scarcely begun your journey.

Finbar looked him straight in the eye. Sometimes the way is dark.

There is a light within. Conor put out a hand and touched his brother on the brow, very lightly. Then he turned and put his arms around me, hugging me so tight I could hardly breathe. Farewell, little owl.

I fought back tears, for I knew this was his path and he must follow it. He puded the hood over his head, and took up his staff of birch wood, and the three of them went down the path into the forest, and in the space of time it took for a tiny cloud to blow across the sun, they were gone.