Kilmeny was deeply immersed in a book in the doorway of the library when she felt a sharp snap deep in her chest, followed by a brief pain. She raised a hand to her face and found it wet with tears. She was crying and could not seem to stop, which was weird, because the text wasn’t that tedious. Still, she was wracked with a sense of profound loss. It felt like standing on the edge of a cliff and reaching into empty air.
Was the prison atmosphere finally getting to her?
She placed the book in its slot, called a soft, sniffling goodbye to the Librarian, and walked off into the forest to clear her head, but even that did nothing. The weeping continued. Where her tears fell, deep blue-purple flowers sprang up. She ended up taking herself far to the other end of the forest, where the moss wa
