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“Conor! You are magnificent, my boy!” Cried the man without eyelids - “Of course I accept your gift! Anything to keep this little one with us!” He ran across to Ella. Grabbing her by the hand and lifting her up. Conor had never seen him this animated; he found it somehow grotesque. He continued -

“Look, look at the eater. Do you see where the sisters crept from?” Conor wasn’t looking at the neighbour, his blood pouring out on the floor, moments from losing consciousness again. He had little faith the man had any way of returning in earnest to the land of the living. Conor was gazing at Ella, her movements were wrong. Up until this exact moment she had seemed to relish every moment of chaos she had wrought on the world since he found her in the bloody diamond. She reminded him of Calum that morning in their oak. She looked terrified. She knew what the man would offer before he spoke.

“Ella, my girl. You’ve got what you wanted! The deeps are open to you now. You could even visit your other brother. I dare say you could be the one to open his deep for him, I believe he’s always just stayed up top before now. But I cannot let you travel alone, it isn’t safe. Come now, take the place of Catherine. Three is good. I’ll make sure the other two hold no grudges.”

Ella said nothing. The man went on.

“Come, the other two have waited long enough! They’ll forgive you when you travel together to the deep of the man who took their mothers. Give them that, feast on what little remains of the man's orenda, and you will be bound to one another forever.”

She glanced at Conor.

“Him? All bonds are lost to you there, girl. He cannot look at you without seeing what you did. His debt is paid; I accept his offering. You have no brothers, now, Ella. Take your place as one of the three sisters. This is what I promised, this is your freedom.”

Ella remained silent a while. Conor bade her stay with him. Tried to fill his eyes with all the forgiveness he couldn’t yet voice. Her terrors weren’t fading. No, she’d practiced this, this is what she’d wanted. She took her fear and threw it off a very high building as she took the man's hand.