Through all of this, Sage had stayed close to Leelo, but she hadn’t spoken.

“Where’s Mama?” Leelo finally asked. She’d been waiting for her to join them like so many of the other Endlans, but she hadn’t, and Leelo was beginning to fear the worst.

“Come on,” Sage said. “I’ll take you to her.”

Sage was dressed in furs and leather, a large knife strapped to her thigh, Leelo’s old bow across her shoulder. She looked like she had prepared for battle. But as Leelo gazed deep into her cousin’s eyes for the first time that day, she saw that all of the fight had gone out of her.

As they approached the cottage that had been Leelo’s home for so long, she noticed that there was no smoke coming from the chimney. When she opened the front door, the bells, which were frozen under a layer of ice, didn’t ring their cheerful welcome. The house was so cold and still that Leelo was convinced her cousin had brought her to her mother’s grave.

And then she heard a familiar creak on the stairs, and Leelo collapsed in relief.

“Is it really you?” Mama descended the stairs slowly, but though she was thin and pale, she wasn’t clinging to the banister for support. She knelt down next to Leelo and gathered her into her arms, and now it was Leelo’s turn to cling to something, to be held like a child and comforted by her mother.

“Are you all right?” Leelo managed between sobs.

“I’m fine. A little cold, but I’m getting stronger by the day.”

Of course. With Ketty gone, she wasn’t being poisoned anymore.

“I’m sorry I let the fire go out,” Sage said, and Leelo whipped around to face her, having forgotten she was still there.

“I was lighting it when I sensed something was out there.”

“You’re still living together?” Leelo asked Mama. “After everything she did? What happened to the Hardings?” She turned to Sage, unable to keep the venom out of her voice. “Did they abandon you, too?”

Sage gave a tight shake of her head. “I told them I wouldn’t marry Hollis.”

Fiona pulled Leelo’s face back to her. “Sage is still family. The only family I had left.”

Leelo rose and helped Fiona to her feet, then turned to her cousin. “Thank you for looking after her,” she managed.

Sage lowered her gaze. “It’s the least I could do.” After a minute, she cleared her throat. “What happens now, Lo?”

Leelo nearly scoffed. Was it possible that all this time, Sage had been waiting for someone to tell her what to do? Leelo supposed that without Watching, without Ketty’s orders or a family to care for, Sage must be feeling lost. She’d never wanted anything other than to be a good Endlan. “That’s up to you, I suppose.”