"Am I really that untrustworthy that he never told me any of this?"
Her shoulders shook as she tried to hold herself together.
"I… We always played together. We always had each other's backs. When his wife got pregnant, the first person he called was me.
He told me how happy he was, how long he had waited for that joy… he was so happy, I'd never seen him like that before.
And when you were born—" She looked at Leo, tears streaming down her cheeks, but her lips curved into a bittersweet smile.
"My brother was over the clouds, holding you like you were a treasure he'd never dreamed he could have. Hah… you should have seen the way he looked at you, how much he loved you, how fiercely he cared for you," she chuckled through her tears, then whispered,
"Yet he never told me about magic, about being a mage… why? Is that secret really more important than me, than his own child?"
As she spoke, Leo could feel her sorrow and confusion soaking into him, echoing his own trembling heart.
