They've gotten by before. On more, on less; but it isn't as though any of their number own equal weight. Riftwatch nearly ended for a quarter. The ugly truth of it: Death only matters if you miss the missing.

(Perhaps the Venatori should conduct popularity polls.)

"A nightmare in reverse." Drifting from terrible certainty into the mundane. "Though I suppose there's interesting that I'd rather skip."

All that massed grief. He'd sooner live, and wrestle with it, but Baudin has seldom given the impression of self-preservation. They aren't so close that he could number them all, but he knows a few: The father, the mothers, and the elf must count; then the other elves, that Nevarran Tranquil, a dozen more. She has been often enough a survivor.

Strange to find the positions reversed.