The first lie Kali found was carved in gold.
Of his own will, our father gave the last of his strength, that his children might return home.
The inscription ran around the base of a stone relief. It depicted the ancestor standing at an open gate, one hand raised in farewell as men and women carried their children through. Someone had taken particular care with his expression. He looked tired, proud, and perfectly content to be left behind.
"That certainly isn't how I remember it."
Her bond with Elion had given her only fragments of what he had seen in the spire, but she remembered the man on his knees. She remembered his own people holding him there while they took what little strength he had recovered.
Whatever else could be said about their return, he had not sent them home with his blessing.
