“There’s quite a bit happening,” Silence noted.

“It is a soldier’s burden,” Farah whispered.

I stopped, but even if I didn’t, Silence did, so we all did.

“I don’t know how to help him,” Farah announced, sounding just that.

Helpless to help True.

It did not surprise me, but nevertheless, it broke my heart to hear that True had the battle dreams.

But I liked to see how distraught it made Farah.

Not that I wished her to be distraught, or, say, more distraught after all she’d endured.

But I did like that it was clear she cared that much about True.

“He is not of them,” Silence told her.

I looked to Silence but it was Farah who spoke aloud my question.

“What?”

Silence shook her head and moved to form a huddle again.

“He is not of them. Uncle Wilmer. Aunt Mercy. Carrington. Courtiers. Castles. Pomp. Pageantry. Tradition. When you arrive at the castle, watch his face when someone bows to him. It…” She shook her head and finished on a whisper, “It always distressed me.”

“I don’t understand,” Farah whispered in return.

“He would be a shepherd, if that was his lot, and be that happily,” Silence shared. “A farmer. A forester. The keeper of an inn. He would have a hearth and a wife and a family and have naught even a line in a single tome in Go’Doan written to record his life and his mark on this earth after his passing. And he would do that with gladness in his heart, if he passed knowing in that life, he gave love and protected the ones he gave it to.”

Farah was staring at Silence.

I was doing the same.

“But he will be the greatest king Wodell has ever known,” Silence said fiercely. “And he will be because of this. Because he takes the hand of a farmer, he feels the callouses, and he knows the toil. Because he watches the ribbon weaving of the Day of Alabasta, the smiles on the children’s faces, and he understands a day of rest needs to be proclaimed across the kingdom so his people can rejoice. Because, Farah, when he arrives home after a battle, he does not send lieutenants to share of the fallen. He travels Wodell with his men and he tells wives and mothers this news himself, he understands their suffering and it makes an indelible mark on his soul.”

“Dear gods,” Farah whispered.

“I didn’t know he did that,” I said.