"Do not be silly, little girl. I do not deserve someone as precious as you. And you certainly must not yoke yourself to dangerous folk like me. Do you understand?" He rested one heavy hand briefly on the top of her head, his palm covering her crown, his fingers spanning the small curve of her skull. "It was a pleasure making your acquaintance."
The six of them passed through the courtyard gate and into the street beyond without further ceremony or lingering looks or drawn-out farewells.
And just like that, they departed.
Life inside the house resumed its ordinary rhythm at once, as though the previous three days had been only a strange, vivid dream—a dream from which everyone had now awakened, blinking and disoriented, to find the world unchanged.
Though, Star sat on the low stone bench and wept without restraint, her small shoulders shaking, her hands pressed to her face as though she could hold back the grief with her palms.
As expected of a child.
