"Ura? Toak? I need to tell you something." Matsias Beleed's parents had been dead a year. In that time, he had been adopted by his best friend's family, had his leg amputated, and completed his first semester at Faraday Academy of Magic. He had not spoken to his adopted parents of the fire in which his parents had died, the fire that his adopted mother, Ura, had rescued him from. It was time.

Ura, her husband, Toak, and their daughter, Key, were all gathered in the kitchen of the trailer where they lived. Key had heard Mat's story only a few days before, and he suspected she knew what he wanted to say. She pushed the chair next to her out with a foot, as if inviting him to the table. He accepted.

"I know you think I'm the only person who survived the fire, but I wasn't." He told them how his mother had instructed all of the children in the temple to leave and find Lishald Fandel, a family friend who helped them hop a train to the coast, but Matsias had turned back when the fire began, hoping to rescue his parents. "...and that's why I was the only one outside the temple," he finished.

Matsias didn't believe the Truuits would think any less of him for not telling them right away. He expected them to tell him that he had no need for the guilt he felt over leaving the others, among them his younger brother, Lamel. He did not expect Ura to calmly say, "yes, we know."

"What?" This was the second time this year Mat had told someone a buried secret only to hear this reaction. Though he had told no one at school that he was actually of Pelan heritage, not Thisaazhou, as he pretended, his friend, Charlie, turned out to have read his school application that revealed this information. But his version of the fire had not been written down. He couldn't fathom how the Truuits would already know.

"Well, we guessed," Ura continued. "About a month ago, we ran into Turice and Zhuria on the road." This was common. Thisaazhou had always been nomadic, and so they shared news with other familes they encountered while traveling. "They said they had helped a group of Pelan kids board a boat bound for Brek."

"You mean they made it?" Matsias felt a knot in his chest loosen. "My brother's alive?"

"We think so. We weren't sure they were from Illegate, but Zhuria mentioned Lishald. He and your mother were good friends. And with what you've told us..."

"It must have been them," Toak finished for his wife.

Ura shook her head. "I spoke with the Fandels that morning, just before I found you. And until she said it, I had no idea..."

"They fooled us both." Matsias could feel the anger he had tried to keep at bay welling up within him. "Mom too."

"She did what she thought she had to. To save your life."

The anger became too much. Matsias used his crutch to stand and returned to the room he shared with Key. The prosthetic leg that he wore most days was sitting next to his bed. He picked it up and threw it against the wall. If his mother hadn't hid her plans from him, his leg never would have been injured in the fire to begin with.

A knock came at the door, along with Ura's voice calling his name.

"Go away," he said, sure that she was going to chastise him for possibly damaging the wall. And his leg. She didn't.

The door opened, and she sat on the bed next to him. "Lysi was my best friend," she said, "and when she died, I was... furious." This surprised Mat. Ura was rarely open about her emotions. She had shared her feelings with him a few times since his mom died, but she usually tried to remain stoic, as did most Thisaazhou women. "I told her for years she should leave Illegate, but she was too stubborn."

"She was the temple matriarch." Matsias almost laughed. "Bound to her people."

Ura continued. "I wanted to bring her back just so I could kill her myself." This time, Matsias did laugh. "But when I heard your brother might still be alive... I had a new goal. Toak and I have been trying to reach Lishald. If we can do that, maybe we can find Lamel."

The knot in Mat's chest loosened again. If he could see his brother again, maybe he could forgive himself for leaving him behind.

Ura stood and picked up the prosthetic leg. "You know," she said, "you remind me a lot of Lysi. Wherever she is, she's probably kicking herself that she didn't anticipate you trying to save her."

He accepted it. "So... I should stop being angry?"

"Gods no. You have every right to be angry." She leaned in. "But promise me, if you find a way to talk to her, you'll let me get in a few choice words myself."

"I promise," Matsias told her, though hearing her say it made him feel less angry already.

"Also…" She hesitated and handed him his leg. "I'd appreciate it if you got all your leg-throwing out before we take this to the prosthetist. I'd prefer to get all the repairs paid for at once."