Role

Chapter 7

She had spent many moons trying to console Mother and Father. They were as
broken as she was, and could only find the energy to drink and tend to the
chores of the Inn. Eventually, ______ realized that Mother would cling to her
until they both suffocated.

______ left in the night, abandoning her ruined family home as her brothers
and sisters had before her. Grief echoed her steps as she crossed the streets
of Hamsah, recalling every alley that provided a home during hide-and-seek.
The voices of her siblings were already lost to her, dulled by the passing of
time. Her memories of them were reduced to quotes spoken in her mind, in her
own inner voice. With effort, ______ could remember Conren's tense smile or
Melirene's bright eyes. With even more effort still, she could pretend that
her Mother and Father wouldn't be gutted by her departure.

Conren. Asteli. Tisus. Melirene. Serith.

They were all gone. Had they been next to her, they would urge her to move
forward. Did it matter if she did? There was no joy to be found in Thera.
Monsters waited in every guild and cabal, clinging to their righteousness and
causes as if *their* dedication would be strong enough to win a war. The world
was filled with disposable siblings and hopeful souls that were ground into
dust and reduced to a few lines in a letter.

The girl who was once-_____ fashioned a new identity from the agony that was
etched into her memories.

With no one left to remember her, she would call herself Kytria.