The Jhag halted and half-turned. ‘I am cursed. This is the secret you ever keep from me, isn’t it? There are…recollections. Fragments.’ He lifted a hand as if to brush his brow, then let it fall. ‘I sense…terrible things…’ ‘Yes. But they do not belong to you, Icarium. Not to the friend standing before me now.’ Icarium’s deepening frown tore at Mappo’s heart, but he would not look away, would not abandon his friend at this tortured moment. ‘You,’ Icarium said, ‘are my protector, but that protection is not as it seems. You are at my side, Mappo, to protect the world. From me.’ ‘It is not that
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