“I’m still sorry. I wish we could have kept singing together. You have a lovely voice, you know.”

“Thanks. It was fun. I wish…I wish we could have done more songs too. It was the happiest moment of my life.”

Violetta blushed. Cara felt a pang. She looked around. People were eating quietly. The silence of Noelictus. She shook her head.

Well, they already hate me. Cara said nothing more. But she concentrated.

And cast a spell.

The first keys of the piano’s music made Violetta glance at Cara suspiciously. The young woman was just sitting there, her back to the table. She focused on her friend, the young woman to whom Afiele had been her only home.

It had been a short week. But Cara felt like she knew Violetta as well as many of her friends.

“Cara. What are you doing?”

“Just singing a song, Violetta. For a friend. Rest. And I’ll sing for you. It’s the only thing I can do.”

Some of the helplessness, the longing to do something for all these brave people about her—Cara must have accidentally shown that. Because Violetta hesitated and sat back. She closed her eyes.

Cara ignored the others who heard the piano’s music and turned to look. Among them was a [Princess]

who had come as soon as she’d suspected a song.

She sang for her friend. Softly at first, a song from her home that was quite popular. She had listened to it many times, but it had never fit more than now.

You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban.

Violetta’s head rose slightly. She looked at Cara, then closed her eyes. The [Singer] closed her eyes too.

And she thought of home for the first time since leaving the crypts.

Not the cities which she worked in and loved and hated. But where she longed to be. Somewhere without people. A place like Afiele in Ireland. A place to rest.

The sun. Cara thought of the sun, a fresh breeze blowing in her hair, cooling her. She sang on, dreaming of home.

She didn’t notice her voice picking up to match the louder music, now the only sound in the silence.

Everyone had stopped to listen. But for more than just the music.

Culin took his thumb out of his mouth, and Sasi blinked. Seraphel closed her eyes as well and felt it.

A breeze on her skin. The smell of soil, grass—slightly unfamiliar. A land she had never visited before.

No one in that room knew the smells carried on the wind so subtly different from Afiele. But they felt a breath of fresh air move through the room. And for a moment, the room felt brighter as if the sun had broken through Noelictus’ sky.

Violetta stirred. She sat up, as some of the fatigue running through her, weighing her down, was carried away by that breeze. She looked at Cara, eyes wide.