Sonder had learned long ago that the shards were dangerous.
Good or bad intentions made no difference. There were no right hands for them.
Not even in hers.
Five of them together were especially dangerous.
Even though she didn't hear any whispers in her mind actively, there was a presence that loomed over her.
It rested like an unseen hand, heavy between her shoulders.
The shards were bundled away in cloth in her pack, but that didn't reassure her much.
It seemed that part of their danger came from being aware of what they were, but only partly.
After some time around them, one would inevitably realize their power.
No one should carry five of them. They should, let alone, not be carried by someone already so… ill-suited.
She would seek the rest out anyway.
Vell's face came to her mind. He was calm, and his eyes radiated a ruby glow, like he knew something nobody else did.
Like he knew many things that no one could.
But then her mind wandered to the last time she had seen him in the bed of the Yellow Mage.
How frail he was.
How much time did she have left?
The goddess's tears wouldn't last forever.
She held her side and felt the rib that Yellow Mage implanted in her.
If something went wrong, he would tell her.
When Sonder saw Sireacht drifting around her and ahead while cooing, some of her worries went away.
She wondered when the little dragon would hatch or what hatching would even look like.
She had seen the big feathered dragon, but, as of now, Sireacht was just an egg.
Sonder lifted a hand and let a finger brush against the floating shape.
At least someone was worry-free.
She hadn't looked at the shards since she'd left the somewhat rude mage's home.
She went over her behavior a few times and cringed at herself. She'd been rude and mean, and it should have been obvious that this wasn't who Sonder wanted to be.
It wasn't the first time something else had overcome her and she'd changed for the worse.
This time the cause was very apparent, but what if it was just who she was deep down? What if being a banshee was just this…?
Regret clung to her.
But what did it matter that she regretted something if she had still done it?
Proof that she still felt and hadn't yet become fully inhuman?
She shook her head and continued on.
The Dico spell's thread she followed had led her since dawn towards the rising sun, and the land changed as she went.
Trees thinned, their leaves smaller, tougher, shaped by strong winds.
Grass gave way to stubborn brush, then to pale stone streaked with lichen.
Birds cried overhead, sharply, wheeling calls that echoed loudly in the open air. Sonder paused once to listen, head tilted upwards, trying to place the sound.
Sireacht fluttered higher, excited by the open sky, shedding motes of dust.
When the ground began to slope downward, Sonder slowed.
The air was salty, and she heard something in the distance.
Then, when she went over a slight bump in the land, she could see where the land ended.
The ocean stretched before her, endless and bright in the morning sun.
Waves rolled in and out, foaming when they hit the coast.
The blue thread extended from Sonder's eyes, straight ahead, and vanished far beyond her sight to the ocean.