Two weeks. That's how long Zeviana's been missing her father. It's also how many days she's been considering how utterly stupid his death was. Not something big and dramatic, he wasn't stabbed or jumped or hanged - he got sick. Then he got sicker. Then he died.

Adarin's more of a wreck than she is, he was the one that hovered, the one that bartered for various potential cures, the one that kept looking for a doctor or something to fix their father. Obsessively, without rest. Zeviana helped, too, she had a bit of money saved from fights in the ring, it was supposed to be pocket money but now it's not. She got into more fights than was probably safe - made bets on herself, won every one, and handed her brother the money. He'd go and find things to fix their father from there. It wasn't enough.

It's not fair. They tried their hardest, he should have lived. If things were fair he would have.

Neither of them wanted to stay in his house after. So they decided to leave. They're going to Casasha, where Adarin can probably find work for his abjuration thing. Zeviana doesn't need to go to a specific country, she's likely to find work everywhere. No one wants to take bets on a girl in a fighting ring, and with how she wins - well, she can make more than pocket change betting on herself, if she wants. She doesn't mind, the fights are fun, the money's nice. Maybe when she's thirty and less spry she'll need to do something else, but for now, this works.

What doesn't work is how absolutely miserable her twin is. She needs to take breaks from him, because he's just - so utterly destroyed by grief. She leaves him alone, gives him space, and when she can, she cheers him up. But not right now, right now, she's on one of those breaks. He's back at the wagon, doing - whatever. But she's in the woods, on a walk.

The trees are pretty. Zeviana's almost disappointed that they haven't met any bandits in them, but she's not disappointed by the scenery. Vaguely, she wonders if Casasha looks like this, because if it does she might have an opinion about moving there after all.