I didn’t know it at the time, of course, but that was the last season I had with her. She passed away after the next sojourn, when I was nine. We burned a pyre for her in the center of the city of Voa, but the sojourn ship carried her ashes into space. As our family grieved, the people of Shotet grieved along with us. Ylira Noavek will sojourn forever after the current, the priest said as the ashes launched behind us. It will carry her on a path of wonder. For seasons afterward, I couldn’t even speak her name. After all, it was my fault she was gone.
