Soren stared at the fallen portrait for a long time, his heart beating loudly in his ears. The image of the woman—her soft smile, the faraway light in her eyes—remained etched in his mind even after the glow had faded.
That face… He knew it.
He slowly crouched down, running his fingers across the cracked frame, as if touching it would make the memory clearer. And then it hit him like a wave.
That woman, he met her when he was just a boy.
He remembered how his mother would send him away, and that was how he met her. The hills were clear and cold, the night sky vast above him. He'd been too young to understand constellations back then, but he'd wanted to. She taught him everything he knew about astronomy.
He still remembered the first impression of her, with a telescope propped beside her, tracing the sky with her fingers.
He remembered her smiling when she noticed him. He remembered their last meeting, too. She was going to take care of her baby, and she had to leave.
