"Then I have to start with the part you don't remember."
Rhayne stays quiet beside me.
The docks have a kind of silence that's never really silence. Ropes creak, wood groans under old weight, water slaps against stone, chains drag somewhere far off, and voices stay too small to become conversation. Above all of it is that impossible Thirstfall sky, blue and deep, as if the ocean had risen to take the place of the clouds.
Rhayne keeps her fingers on the Battle Ribbon coiled and clipped at her belt. She only touches it lightly, as if making sure a part of her own body is still there.
"I remember the arrow," she says.
Her voice is low but steady. Rhayne goes steady when she's trying not to burden anyone with her own fear.
"I remember Mira with the bow. I remember understanding there was no time. After that…" She brings a hand to the right side of her chest, where Zhang Xi worked her healing. "After that I wake up in your lap."
"You chose well."
She looks at me. "The arrow?"
