The Inadequate Heir

by Danielle L. Jensen

“If one only knows one’s own mind on things, does one really know anything at all?”

“All the books didn’t disappear from the world because your young self decided to abandon them. They are still waiting for you.”

“So strange to think we can see the same shapes in the sky as those living half a world away, and in the seeing, know the stories of people we’ve never met.”

Both of them knew what they were doing. Trying to force a lifetime into one ship voyage, because it was all they could ever have.

“I wish I could hate you,” he said into her hair. “Because then I could watch you walk away and not feel like … like …” She felt him shake his head. “If there are words for how I feel about you, I’ve never heard them. Never seen them written in any of the thousands of books I’ve read.”