Tuya never imagined feeling such sorrow to see the edge of her region. Somewhere behind her, one hundred wilders were scattering, dispersing into the distance in small groups, as if they were all blown by the winds of her spear ending Tokhun. Among them, Masarga and her four closest friends.

Fingers slipping away from hers, arms falling to the side, final glances, and then, minds parting. Tuya relived it, each time feeling more wrong that she let it happen. You were not supposed to say until next time to the person you loved most. You were supposed to be together. You were supposed to protect them, to watch them grow, and guide them along the way. You were not supposed to leave them behind in the Hollows.

Nobody would protect Masarga from Gurg now, or even the thousands of tamers presiding over the Hollows. Many wilders might not survive the cycle of the moon, if not the sun’s rise and fall, because she was leaving them behind to face Gurg’s wrath.

Remember, Yaha projected, you are also leaving behind the bad. You have dreamt of this day all your life. You have won yourself. You will escape. You will not be tormented by tamers anymore. You will find yourself in faraway lands and you will find your way back here and drive Gurgaldai ezen Celegan to his knees.

Somehow, this day long dreamt felt empty now that she was leaving behind everyone she loved. Almost everyone at least.

Darrakh’s anxiety was profound. Jittery, he was, his head swiveling without rest, his eyes darting all around him, afraid of streams of consciousnesses he could not see, knowing that Gurgaldai ezen Celegan was all-knowing with eyes and ears everywhere in the Hollows, that escape was far from certain and anything uncertain in the Hollows was certain to be trouble. He spoke little since the claiming, letting his feet do the talking as they left behind the region. What little he did say was to reiterate that Tuya and Yaha stay linked, that he would be ready to pretend to be their claimer as they ventured through regions of forest full of tamers who would question them, who would challenge him.

Yaha pulsed with determination, her mind honed on the purpose they shared, her thoughts ever-so-often drifting to self-sacrificial, as if her honor was in dying to protect Tuya rather than living with her. The truth was, she preferred her own sorrow to the contagion of her lover’s anxiety or the heaviness of her mother’s intentions to die for her. The truth was, this day did not belong to dreams and glory. Dreams and glory were nothing but the lies she promised to herself to make it this far. Yes, it was better to dwell in sorrow of the past, of things that happened, than to linger in the truth that she was lying to herself with dreams about how things were going to go today and tomorrow and every day after. Claiming herself was a beginning and ending. It was easier to look back from the end than it was to look ahead to the beginning of all new challenges.

Thus, Tuya let herself lament the loss of almost every person she loved. People who would struggle and suffer without her and because of her. A hundred women who did not get to leave. A hundred women who deserved to be free no less than Tuya, who lived lives as hard as she had. She was just like them and yet it was her who got to leave this life behind. It is not fair.

Fair? Yaha thought. Life is not fair, child. It never has been and it never will be. Fairness is an illusion. It is a parent’s lie to a child who needs to believe that good things happen when they do good and bad things happen when they do bad. You do not leave because of fairness, you leave because you have earned this.

Tuya bristled, wanting to shove Yaha out of her mind, as they meandered through a small animal path through the thick branches of young trees and bushes, staying out of sight of whatever tamers or wilders resided in the neighboring region. She could sense the life around her, or rather the absence of it, even as her eyes traced the path forward, allowing them to navigate through places better suited for rabbits than runaway khorota.

It is not fair that I have greater abilities. I did not ask to be special. I did not want to be unlike everyone else, to be Chosen.

Yaha snorted. Her amusement flowed to Tuya, clashing with her antithetical frustrations at the unfairness, at the injustice of her life. There was nothing to laugh at. A hundred women left behind and one leaving just because her eyes saw further and into the dark and her mind reached further and could break the links that bound them.

People all over the world are born with great ability, Yaha lectured. You are doubtless one of them. Yet, it is not who you were born that made you worthy of this. It is not because Celegana blessed you with one of the mightiest minds this world will ever know, nor because Norali made you her shining light, and least of all because some monster chose you. You are here, Tuya, my little empagong, because of the decisions you made and the person you choose to be. You are here because you spent seasons preparing yourself. You grow faster and your peak is higher, but you are the one who chose to climb. It is not fair and you deserve to be free. Both can be true, just as it is true that it hurts to leave behind women who do not deserve to suffer just for being born, it is true that you have done everything you needed to leave this place behind you.

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Yaha’s lecture penetrated layers of stubbornness and rebellion, sinking in. Both can be true. I earned this and it is unfair that the people I love must remain here. Seasons of training, of learning how to commune with plants and make them grow, of finding blessings in the dark, of turning her body into a spear, of planning for this day, and of winning her freedom belonged to her, just as the sorrow and guilt did.

Yaha’s amusement trickled into her mind like rain pouring hard from the sky. I must be getting good at this mentoring.

Tuya grinned for the first time since leaving Masarga. Joy could be found even in the heart of sorrow, like a withering flower in a dark place long without light, Tuya would nurture it. Must have been born with a great ability for it.

Yaha chuckled and cleared her throat as they reached a small stream running downhill, a weak flow of good water along rocks surrounded by the thickest of forest, tiny hollows left behind and land overgrowing from being abandoned by tamers and wilders for time unknown. Wildlife flourished here, Tuya sensing hundreds of small creatures. “Or hardened by the hardest of pupils!”

“No, I was the perfect student. Never gave you any trouble.” Tuya kept her lips a flat line, even if her mischief permeated their link.

“If that was perfect, I think we need to revisit your vocabulary, Tuya. I think we may have lost that one in translation.”

Darrakh twisted his neck, grinning so sweet that Tuya surprised him with a kiss on the cheek. “You were great back there. I owe you.”

“You never owe me anything, for you have given me everything that has ever been good in my life.”

She intertwined her fingers with his. “I have more to give.” She threaded her other hand through his hair, his wonderful, messy hair, and put her mouth near his. “Much more.”

“More Tuya is good,” Darrakh said, flashing his beautiful grin.

“Adolescents,” Yaha muttered, an unwilling recipient of the unwelcome images running through Tuya’s mind.

“Old people,” Tuya and Darrakh rebounded.

“I will let you know that I am only thirty-five years old! Among my people, I am seen as young.”

Tuya glanced around, surveying the emptiness of this beautiful place where no person probably had been in many cycles of the seasons. Of note, there were no Mahagans here except for Yaha. “Are we among your people?”

Darrakh guffawed.

“Why do I even bother!” Yaha snapped, splashing stream water on her face, exhaling some of her annoyance.

Tuya deployed her smile and shifted her voice, using only the tongue and not the throat to make the sounds. “Because we love each other?”

Yaha shook her head. “I pity you, Darrakh of the Hollows, for you must deal with this girl whose ability to inflict frustration is only surpassed by her ability to diffuse it.”

Darrakh sighed, his joy receding and anxiety surging back. Their hands fell to the sides, Tuya unsure whether she let go or he did. Perhaps they both did. She felt a wrongness in her gut, a whisper in her mind urging her toward doubt. Of all the things she never expected to happen, Yaha came to Darrakh’s defense. He worries about getting out of the Hollows. Worry makes men go stupid, Tuya. Makes them shut their mouths harder than a clam protecting its pearl. Get used to it.

Darrakh crossed the stream, extending his mind into the forest ahead of them to detect what life he could. “There are people ahead. It will not be long now until we cannot go back anymore.”

Tuya would always have the memory of Yaha’s brief-lived defense of Darrakh. “Go back? Why would we go back?” the Mahagan Spear wielded her spear, running her hand over the shaft.

Good question, Tuya thought, mistrust nipping at her untrusting mind.

Darrakh said nothing, his anxiety pulsing from his mind sending unclear messages about whatever lurked within. “Were you afraid I would change my mind?” Tuya asked.

“No,” he muttered, eyes down.

“Then what is it?”

“I am just afraid.” He gazed up at the Spire, visible through the thick canopy overhead. Somehow, that never changed. She felt Gurgaldai’s eyes on her and knew she would until she could no longer see that beautiful monstrosity of earth and tree stretching toward the sky.

She tapped Darrakh on the arm. “Let’s keep moving. The sooner we are gone from the Hollows, the sooner we can stop being afraid.”

“I can agree with that,” Yaha said.

Darrakh inhaled, like Tuya taught him, then exhaled. “Remember, when the tamers are around us, I will need to—

“We know, Darrakh,” Tuya said, hugging him. “They are just lies.”

“Just lies,” he mumbled, more to himself she thought than to her. He met her eyes, no shining smile now, “Still, I want you to know that I will hate it all the same. I would rather—

“You will not be hurting me. I promise.” She kissed his cheek and handed over her spear. “Just lies,” she said, hoping that she was not lying to herself.