“My son…” she whispered one afternoon, caressing her belly with a huge hand. “He is important.”
“Important to whom?” I asked.
She looked at me with a quiet sadness.
—For the balance of the world.
I didn’t fully understand his words, but I felt they were true.
The storm arrived on the seventh day.
It was not an ordinary storm.
The sky turned black before sunset, and the wind began to roar as if a thousand invisible beasts had awakened at once. The waves crashed against the rocks with a fury I had never seen.
Aelira slowly sat up.
She could already sit up, although she was still breathing with effort.
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