Free From Across the Clouded Range by H. Nathan Wilcox

a
damn what happens to you once they have your property. That is why
I wrote to Ipid, why I asked him to arrange this, why I told him
that the joining ceremony had to be now.”
    Teth stared at Milne as if she had
never seen her before. The accusation could not have been
clearer.
    “ No, Teth,” Milne snapped.
“This is what has to happen, and you won’t make me feel guilty for
it. We both knew that this life could not continue forever. There
was never going to be an easy way out. We’ve backed ourselves onto
a cliff and rather than stop we’ve just kept going until there’s
nowhere even to stand. Ipid is proposing the only safe passage off
that cliff. Trust me, it will be hard. It will be uncomfortable. It
will be work. But the only alternative is to fall.”
    Teth looked up from the floor where
her eyes had been fixed. She looked hollow, emptied out. Her long
limbs sagged as if she no longer had the strength to hold them in
their joints. Milne could not ever remember seeing Teth so
defeated, did not even know it was possible.
    “ I . . .” Teth tried to
speak but couldn’t find the words. She looked again into Milne’s
pleading eyes. “I . . . I have to think about this. It’s too much.
I can’t think right now.” Milne reached for her, but Teth shook off
her hands and ran up the stairs.
    A moment later, she reappeared with a
crude framed pack over one shoulder. She looked at Milne, and her
face started to collapse. She reached down and brought her much
smaller aunt into a crushing hug. “I . . . I’ll be back. I
promise,” she whispered. Then she ran out the door without so much
as a look back.
    “ Tethina,” Counselor Torpy
yelled after her, “you can’t. . . .”
    He stopped when Milne placed a hand on
his shoulder. “It is no use. She is gone, but she’ll be back.”
Milne wiped the tears that were finally coming to her own eyes. The
cough overtook her and she hacked for several moments. All she
could think was how much she hated herself for what she had just
done, but it was the only way to save her precious Teth. “Can you
write a letter for me?” she asked the counselor when she could
speak.
    “ Of course, I’ll need to
return to my house for some paper and ink, but that is no problem.
What do you need?”
    “ I want to send a response
to Ipid, to let him know that Tethina has agreed to the
ceremony.”
     
    #
     
    Teth could barely see for the tears
welling in her eyes as she stepped down the front porch of her
aunt’s small house. She wiped them away but could not stop the new
ones forming. “Damn it all,” she sobbed. She pulled the cloth Milne
had given her from her pocket and wiped her eyes and nose. She
strode quickly down the lane toward the center of the village.
Normally, she would have snuck through the woods to the bridge, but
she did not have the energy for stealth. She stumbled down the
path, barely aware of where her feet were taking her.
    There is no place for you.
You have no friends, no prospects, no future. It is all a
lie. You are a lie. Milne’s words, real and implied, echoed through Teth’s mind.
How could her aunt think that? How could she say it? The only one
who had ever loved her for who she was. How could Milne betray her
like that? But Milne was dying and with her the last defense. She
could see now what Milne had done for her. How her tiny aunt had
single-handedly held the entire world back. Like a pebble holding a
boulder, had placed herself between Teth and a world set on
crushing her. And Milne was right, there was no place for her. No
one would ever join her. She would never have a place in the
village, would never be able to be who she was. Milne was right,
she was a fantasy.
    Without even realizing it, Teth came
to the last trees and entered the village. She had been jogging.
Somewhere her body protested. Her legs ached from the work they had
already done. She was covered in bruises. More than anything, she
felt wrung out and desperately tired. The