"Then it's me," said Yara.
She said it before anyone else had finished doing the math, which told Soren she'd finished hers a while ago.
"It has to be a primordial. Nothing else fits the hollow, because the hollow is my shape." Her voice was steady and quick. "I go down, I take the vacancy back, and she comes in on top of me and there's no room for her to be anywhere else. That's the whole mechanism. It's clean."
"How long."
"Forever, master. There's no version with a door."
"Right," said Soren. "No."
◆◆◆◆
"You don't get a vote on this."
"I get every vote on this."
"She's my mother." Yara's hands came up. "I made all of it. The door, the boy, the year, the chains, the leash, the grave you're standing in. Every single thing that brought us here was mine. Let me pay for it."
"That's not payment. That's leaving."
"It's the same thing."
