He hesitated. He had to ask one last time so that twenty years from now when he was still missing her, he’d know he tried his best. “Leelo...”

“I can’t go with you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are you sure?” he asked gently.

Her voice broke when she said, “No.”

They held each other for a minute, all the time they could spare, and then he wiped her tears away while she did the same for him.

She waited outside while he disappeared into the cottage. He emerged a moment later with his few belongings: a waterskin she’d given him, the clothes on his back, and in his left hand, the little songbook.

He smiled, looking a bit sheepish. “Is it all right if I keep this? I won’t tell anyone about it ever, I promise.”

“Of course.”

“There’s one other thing.” He pulled another book out from his back pocket. “The poetry book.”

“I thought you hated that thing,” she said with a smile.

“I do, but what can I say? I had a lot of time to kill. Anyhow, I found an inscription in it. I know this sounds strange, but I think it’s to your mother.”

Leelo took the book from his hands. “It is,” she said. “I’ll explain as we walk. Come on, it’s a hike to the cave, and we don’t have much time.”

The sun was hot on their heads and shoulders, and Jaren was quickly drenched in sweat from the exertion of hiking after weeks spent cooped up in the cabin. They had to move slower than Leelo could alone to avoid being seen, since Jaren wasn’t nearly as quiet as she was.

As they walked, Leelo recounted her conversation with Fiona from the previous night. No wonder she hadn’t slept, Jaren thought. She’d had her entire world upended in one day.

“After I told her about you,” Leelo went on, her tone changing, “she confessed something about the lake. Something I wasn’t supposed to know until my year as Watcher was over.”

Jaren remembered how he’d asked Lupin about Lake Luma, but she hadn’t known the answer. “Is it about the poison?”

Leelo stopped, dropping her voice to a whisper. “You remember I said there’s a pond in the grotto? I saw water lilies growing there. They’re part of the spring ceremony, but I didn’t give them any thought beyond that.”

“That’s what you all were releasing into the water that day, when I saw you by the shore?”