“You have become everything that I should have been, Calen. Everything that I was meant to be before The Fall took that life from me. That is the reason I kept Ella’s survival from you. Because if I’d told you, then you would have gone to her, and you would have been right to do so. Because that is what a Draleid does. They protect the ones they love. They protect those who need them. Before you and Valerys rose to challenge Jormun and the others, you said, ‘We’re meant to be guardians, not survivors.’ And you were right. I’ve not been a guardian in a very long time.”
