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Diane McIver's avatar

Wow, I was not expecting that! Very sad, indeed. I thought in the beginning as I was reading it there's got to be a twist, surely. But alas, that wasn't meant to be.

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Richard Ritenbaugh's avatar

It was a story to help me expand my range into expressing grief. If you were saddened, I guess I succeeded!

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Beth Ritenbaugh's avatar

This makes me sad. Lirens is one of the good guys.

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Richard Ritenbaugh's avatar

Only the good die young, I guess. ;) No, for some reason I had this idea in my head from near the beginning of the story, that Lirens would die early (twelve years after the main story), and Mardans and Liandra would play a helpful role in comforting his widow and son. I guess it's a weird writerly thing for authors to know a lot about their characters beyond the needs of the story.

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