'What is it?' she asked. 'What's wrong?'
'I don't know. I..... You know that I am weak now. Is that all
right?'
She took his head to her chest in an outpouring of emotion as primal as
any she had ever known. 'Yes. It's all right.' And in that
moment of honesty and total surrender, she did love him. But she too
backed away, because they were not yet in a place to feel love all the
way. She cleared her eyes, breathed in and stood up straight.
'Right now you're going to eat again, and I don't want to hear
about rationing. You've been putting out for weeks, and it's time
you took something back in. Then you're going to lie down and rest.
Understood?' He nodded, and touched her hair. Then she took his bowl
and went into the back.
He too felt the need to surrender, and to trust, as Skither had told
him. He remembered his words. 'Do not carry the weight alone. It
will crush you.' Yes, he felt nearly crushed. Whatever end would
come of it, this day at least he must let go.
So when he had eaten he lay down on the bed, and asked Sylviana to sit
beside him. She did, and to pass the time he asked her a question
suggested to him by the altar, the dulled mirror, and the memory of his
first days in that place.
'How did you come to befriend Akar? I've often wondered.
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