“I do not want the empress to burn, Rao,” she’d said to him. “I want her to live. I want an answer—a tool or weapon—that will save her. But I want you to live, too. Go to Dwarali, go far from all this, and learn how to live again. Then come back. Whole, or broken, it doesn’t matter. There is nothing worthless about a broken thing—be it a tale, or a man.”
