"Then tell them I will," I say, and stride past him, tucking my wings in and going into the tunnel--

--and stopping in the middle.

I am no creature of Earth. The plot of land and people bequeathed to me with my bloodline sings to me only because the cliffs jut high into the sky, because they seem to exist solely so I can throw myself off them and spiral onto the rising winds that coil above the sea. If there are caves in the Sunblood Cliffs, I know nothing of them, and would hardly consider entering them by choice.

But here... here I am crouched in a tiny hole in the ground, barely the length of two men lying down, surrounded by soil and blocked from the sky... and I feel... embraced. As if the earth is a blanket I can pull up around my shoulders and cuddle into.

Is this what my child feels, swaddled in that warm egg?

"Hello," I whisper to the Land, feeling shy and somewhat ridiculous.

Sister, He whispers back, and I don't want to go.

Perhaps the townsfolk on the other side could be forgiven for back-pedaling when I emerge from the ground, for I'm sure I look entirely fey. The only thing that saves me is probably that I am as confused as they are.

"The Governor," one of them says as the soldiers at the tunnel's mouth stare at me.

Says another, "The Crowned."

I want to tell them not to be superstitious, but what if they're right?

"Come with me," I say instead. "To the square. There is something I have to tell you all."

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So, hearing the explanation Angharad is about to give them, the people of Shraeven's capital...

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