Both POVs
Bramwell
We set the date for the winter solstice.
Not because the solstice had particular significance to either of us — not in the romantic sense — but because it was the longest night of the year, and we were people who had spent a long time in darkness and had decided, between us, that marking the turn toward light was worth the ceremony.
The bridge, as agreed. The usual people, as agreed. Mira giving a speech.
The speech was eighteen minutes.
I timed it.
It covered: the night of the fire, which she had attended at age seven and had clear opinions about. The two years she'd spent believing Lenora was dead, which she described as the longest of my life and also formative in ways I understand better now. The years since — the rope-braiding lesson, the council sessions, th
