I'll light them now. It's all right. Sit beside me and tell me a story in the dark, like you used to. He hears her move to the chair, knowing the placement of every piece of furniture in his room so well that she doesn't need a light. She settles down with a heavy sigh.
Every man remains a boy at heart.
Moments pass in silence, as if his mother has forgotten the old tale, unspoken for so many turnings. Cy wonders if she's fallen asleep. Long ago, before the Hierarchate, before the light of Ixion had divided the darkness, everything lived in the depths of an endless night. She's a voice without a body, a ghost come back not to haunt but to soothe him. Cy closes his eyes.