Chapter 87

Aria's POV

Venn's letter stayed in my thoughts for days after I'd put it away.

Not because of what it said about the alliance, though it said something true about that. Because of what it said about her. The particular quality of a young person who had experienced enough difficulty to understand the difference between where they'd been and where they'd arrived, and who had the clarity to name it without either dramatizing the past or overclaiming the present.

*I know that. I want you to know that I know it.*

That kind of self-awareness at fourteen was not common. It didn't come from curriculum or classroom hours....