The question lingered. "Why not send you farther? Why not return to the day before Ishara laid the curse upon her?"
The question lingered, and silence settled between them...neither of them spoke. Vaelric looked down, thinking hard about what Caelion had just said. It is true that that direction would have saved his mother from all her worries, but he knows what cost would come from it.
Eventually Caelion answered it himself.
"If you had stopped the curse itself...If the curse had never been cast in the first place.....your mother would never have carried those scars."
His eyes wandered toward the distant horizon.
"She would have grown and married the king of the North, and returned to Frostmere with him."
A distant smile touched Caelion's lips. "The Winter King truly loved her, there was never deception in his heart. He would have cherished her, he would have protected her. And she..."
He glanced sideways toward Vaelric. "...would have learned to love him in return."
