I ran all the way to the ocean and plopped onto the sand. I didn’t want to see Ruth or Malachi or to find any other peculiars, not even to learn more about the battle that broke the Harmony. Maybe, with the Sagacity, the peculiars could tell it wasn’t the time to talk to me and teach me about their water world because none of them came to me.

It was the stars’ time, but it wasn’t dark or cold. The distant warmth of the stars wrapped itself around me, but I wasn’t listening to their voice. As the waves slapped the shore several lengths away, I thought about the depths of the water the waves came from and returned to.

I thought about my parents, the Heir, Moraphel. I stopped feeling nothing and felt everything. Sobs shook my body. I lay in the dry sand, dist...

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