It was not winter when she’d left, but when she fell through the rift in the cave, she had come to again knee-deep in water as icy as any she’d ever experienced in the Tundra, the beach had been locked in the depth of winter. But it was her beach again, and she breathed in the salty air with a sense of relief, glad to be home, to be herself again.
But was she truly herself again? Even before she opens her eyes Kellyn can feel the difference – she can feel them at the edges of her consciousness, whispering, and can see them from the corners of her vision, and she knows. The ghosts of the underworld will not truly leave her; they are as much a part of her now as the fabric of time itself. Shaking her head, she looks around, glad to see the others emerging, noting their faces for later consideration (it seems the youngest of them have done the best – Nihlus and Wrynn and Ramiel; Kellyn and Rhy are the only true adults amongst them) but she does not stay to speak to them.
She runs instead, stopping only when she has reached the snow-covered Field, exhaustion burning in her limbs and her throat dry and aching. A part of her wants to turn North, to flee back to the protective gaze of her grandfather and the Brothers, but she is not the same girl who left to follow Carnage’s mad call. Someday she will return, to tell Brennen of those who miss him, but now she does not want to go back to the only home she has ever known. Instead she lowers her head gratefully to the cool water of the stream, and tries to decide where to go. She cannot go to the non-mythical Kingdoms; she has no interest in losing a power, old or new. They are a part of her, ingrained. The Valley has a certain call to her soul, an appeal, but even now Bethanie’s wary voice rings in her ears ‘You are not your mother’s daughter…yet.’ She knows that the ghosts would not approve of the Valley. But the Deserts - ‘You look like her, you know.’ Does she look enough like Elite to be rejected in the Deserts? Would they know?
She doesn’t know what the right choice is.
daughter of cagney and elite