Lily was waiting at the south gate.
She did not run to meet him. She never did. She waited until he came through the white stones, and then she took his arm, turned it over, and looked at the inside of his wrist.
The charcoal was smeared. But the words were still there.
LILY. ONE. ALMOND.
"You kept it," she said.
"It took your name," Almond said quietly. "The Forgetter. I stood on a hill and reached for your name, and it wasn't there." He looked at the smudged letters. "This gave it back."
Lily did not say anything for a moment. Then she pressed her thumb over her own name, very gently, as if she could press it in deeper.
"Then I'm glad I wrote it big," she said. Her voice wobbled only a little.
"So am I."
She looked up at him. Her eyes were wet, and she was laughing at the same time.
"Don't wash it off," she said.
"I wasn't going to."
Kayla took one look at Corvin's arm and sat him down on the nearest bench.
"Who did this?" she asked.
"I did," Corvin said.
