“No, no need to speak. Your eyes tell me all I need to know. I know those eyes because I look into them every day in the mirror. You gave me those eyes. Those eyes are my eyes. You gave me life.”
And Serena pulled her father close and held him as though she'd known him all her life, and he wept out his remorse, explaining to her in broken sentences how he'd hidden even from himself the certain and undeniable knowledge that she was his daughter.
And the two of them spoke deep into the night of the things they wished they had been able to do together, and Serena told him about Papa Zambrano, and Emperor Fire wept with joy that someone had been there to give her what he wished he had been able to give.
An infinite silence of time had passed between them when Serena noticed that Xochitl and
