“I had gone to visit friends in the north, where the weather turned unseasonably cold, and I fell into a severe fever. By the time I returned home, there was a great possibility I might lose you. Achak helped me make a tonic to quicken your arrival, though we both knew it put me at risk. Childbirth is a difficult thing, Larkyra. And while your first screams were filled with much untamed magic, the only thing they did was help ease my pain as I held you in my arms before the Fade took me.”
