A part of her mind was already considering that he’d need to be replaced by the end of this lifecycle, and it made her sad. That was one of the hardest parts of being Deathless, saying goodbye to so many good people. And, with lamentably few exceptions, having to endure eternity with so many irritating ones.

Ideally, she’d acquire a very young child and have Varg raise them in the right way to take over his duties when the time came, but to do that, he needed to travel and teach the routes, not be cooped up in some Sapphire castle, mooning after Honoured Mother Chandni. Perhaps once he’d had a year or two of the realities of living as a spy in a Sapphire castle, he’d be begging her for his old life back.

Yes, she thought to herself. Better always to be patient. Let Varg think it was all his decision. As much as he wants to be with Chandni, I know he wants to be a father too.

Things had changed sufficiently in the forest that she began to worry that she’d got lost. It seemed like nobody had used the paths to Sorn during her time between lives, the vegetation of the Wild having swiftly and completely erased all evidence of human footsteps. However, this was not her first jaunt in such places, and she kept her attention on the canopy above her and the position of the suns in the sky, using their light to guide her. Some of the more ancient of the trees were familiar too, their gnarled shapes like giants, miserable, with crooked spines and clawed hands. Of course she wouldn’t put it past them to have moved since she’d last been this way, the better to confuse travellers. Only a fool placed their trust in the Wild.

It took Pari longer than she’d expected to reach Sorn. Not a lot longer, but enough for it to feel significant. The effect was enhanced by the fact that the forest had started to encroach upon the ghost town, obscuring its borders, and providing an unasked-for camouflage for the outer buildings, blending them in with the greens and browns of the trees. But Pari couldn’t help feel it was more than that. As if the Wild itself had somehow reached out with its vines and branches and brambles, and dragged Sorn deeper into its embrace.

Despite her best efforts to dismiss it as nonsense, she couldn’t shake the notion. The distant glow of the Godroad seemed too far away, vanishing entirely by the time she arrived on Sorn’s streets.