"Does it bother you?" Rohan asked. "Being reminded of what you lost."
Corven considered the question a long moment, watching the children work through their exercise with genuine, focused enthusiasm. "Used to think it would. Turns out it doesn't, not the way I expected. Feels more like paying something forward than reopening an old wound. She'd have liked this place, I think. Liked the way these kids look at flying like it's still something worth dreaming about, rather than just a job that took their father away too often."
Rohan said nothing, simply resting a hand on the man's shoulder, and Corven, after a moment, nodded once in quiet, grateful acknowledgment.
On their final night at Veyrhold, the settlement gathered in the common chamber for what Bryan insisted, with unusual formality, on calling a proper farewell feast — modest by any standard beyond Cael Athis's own harsh scarcity, but generous enough by Veyrhold's careful rationing that
