The silence that followed was different.
For days, the colony of Verdant Promise moved through a haze of gentle sorrow. The wind still whispered through the silica forests, the twin suns still rose and set, but the heart of their world, the steady, quiet presence on the porch, was gone. Roewi Verdent had not simply died; he had, as Lira explained to the weeping children, finished his work and become part of the garden he had helped plant.
Kael felt the absence like a physical chill. The small, dusty house where Teacher Roewi had lived felt cavernous and empty. The other children returned to their games, their grief a fleeting storm, but Kael lingered. He would sit in the classroom, tracing the grain of the wooden desk with his finger, waiting for a voice that would never come again.
It
