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All That Heaven Will Allow
�You�re really a ghost now?� Ebreth looked uneasily at the girl whose life he�d destroyed more than a decade ago.
One of... how many? �All right,� he said, resolutely, �so is there something I can do to--to free your spirit, or something?�
�How chivalric of you,� murmured Lita, her eyes twinkling. �No, I�ll be going on to my final rest as soon as Mina leaves
this Hotel. She�s learned everything I have to teach her, and as for me... I have only one thing left to do before I can enter Heaven.�
There was another uncomfortable pause. Ebreth rubbed his neck. �Is this, ah, the part where you lay a curse on me
for making you wander the earth as a ghost?�
�Don�t be silly, Ebreth,� she sighed, rolling her eyes impatiently skyward. �Oh, I�ll admit I was pretty angry at first. I
even thought that might be why I was stuck in Limbo. That I needed to take you down with me before my soul could rest. But two
years later you were dead anyway, and there I was in Limbo still. Could anyone really be angry enough to need revenge against a dead
man so badly? Not anyone I could understand, anyway. No, there had to be something else. Something more important I had to do
before I could find peace.� She looked off at the unnatural sunset. �And then Mina came.�
�Mina--came to Limbo?� said Ebreth, his brow furrowing.
�Yes. She was twelve years old, and very ill then. As she struggled on the brink between life and death, I met her in the
realms between. And then I thought: maybe what I need to do is tell someone my story. Maybe I can�t just go on to the afterlife
carrying that kind of burden in my heart. So we talked, and I told her everything. And though I still didn�t find release, I realized
something peculiar. I wasn�t angry anymore.� She wound one of her long red curls contemplatively around her fingers. �Mina recovered
from the spotted fever, and I chose to accompany her back to Ataniel. By then I thought that perhaps my purpose was to save her
from some similar fate, you understand. But what happened between her and Roland was--completely different--and I fear my help
may have made things worse, not better. So after six years as a rather inept guardian angel, I was about ready to despair. And then I
overheard my mother talking to cousin Fiona. They�d been shielding Mina from how bad the Remnant situation was, but that
wasn�t the important part. The Word had seen Jack at Tharrfest... and with him was you.� She turned to look at him, her eyes deep
and penetrating. �You had returned,� Lita said. �And I hadn�t known it, but I was waiting for you.�
�I--� Ebreth shook his head dizzily. �But why, Lita? You don�t want revenge, you don�t need my help, you don�t want
to come back to life... what could you possibly want with me, anymore?�
�To finish what I started,� she said. �To close this circle and shut this book once and for all. I�m not leaving until I
save your soul, Ebreth Tor.�
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