She glanced at Jaren through her wet hair and the slashing rain. He was rowing with all his might, but it wasn’t enough. They were just two people against an entire Wandering Forest, strong enough to bend the wind itself to its will. Who were they to think they could defeat it?

From here, it seemed as though the entire island was on fire. What if their cottage was already burned to the ground? Where would Mama go? Panic began to descend on Leelo. What had she been thinking? What had she done?

The music was so soft she didn’t hear it at first over the crashing waves, but then she realized Jaren was singing.

It was the prayer for lost things, the one that had brought them together, that had brought Jaren back to Endla. He had found himself in Leelo, he said, and she had found her answers in him: things didn’t have to be the way they’d always been. They didn’t have to accept the world they’d inherited from their ancestors. They might have bowed under the pressure of their rules and expectations, but they were strong enough not to break, resilient enough to bend.

For the first time, Leelo didn’t feel like she had to sing.

She wanted to.

The song spilled out of both of them, their voices joining in perfect harmony, and when Jaren looked at her, she knew he felt it, too.

Magic.

She’d never told Jaren the rest of the song, but as she sang, his voice rose to meet hers. When they finished, Leelo watched in wonder as the waves began to calm.

“Leelo, look,” Jaren breathed.

Her eyes followed his gaze to Endla. The rain had stopped. The fire had gone out. Just as the old woman had predicted.

She’d never seen her home from afar before, and she understood for the first time that Jaren was right. It was unsettling to realize how small her world had been.

She was setting out for a different world now, one that she had always believed was full of unimaginable evils. But how could that be true, when it had brought her Jaren? Her only regret was that she had not vanquished the evil she’d grown up with.

Without thinking, she closed her eyes, and a song she’d never sung before poured out of her. It was an Endlan song, wordless and haunting, and though her voice rang out alone, she could tell it was full of magic. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t sung it before, or even heard it. Leelo knew in her bones what it was.

A farewell song.