Garreth continued, his voice filtering through the dimly lit room as the dancing flames pushed back against the biting cold that had begun to seep into the room. “Afterwards we…well, we…” “We were never the same,” Mara finished for him. “But Edward, he,” she drew a quick breath, “it was like he had disappeared. Everything he was, everything he had been, vanished before our eyes. And without him, we struggled—struggled to maintain the guard, to protect the men under our charge, to stay true to our vows, to protect the Captain from those who would have taken advantage, to…to.” “It was difficult,” Garreth added. “Edward had always been the strength of the Guard.” “Yes,” Mara agreed. “And without him we were broken, shattered, lost. And to be perfectly honest, he was gone for a very long time. We all suffered without him, but then after what had happened to him and to Liza no one could blame him.
