“How long this time?” she asked Haida as Ariana walked out of the kitchen and down the hall with the poise her mother had drilled into her before she left. The advantage of moving with grace was that it kept her centered, so she didn’t fall on her face. Every time her bare feet touched the floor, she drew magic from the earth to strengthen herself just as the food she’d eaten had strengthened her. “Four days,” Haida told her. “He left as soon as the dogs finished.” That was unusual. He liked to supervise her work, though what she did was so far outside of his forest-bound magic that he could
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