" I'll show you. It will be easier for you to hear that way, I'd imagine."<br/><br/>She touched the surface of the water outside of the boat with her hand, and in the sidewake of the waves coming off of the boat the image of Eckl appeared. Every ripple distorted his face, but the faint facsimile of his voice was so real it gave her goosebumps. He was dead now. Eckl, who had taught her how to walk, was dead.<br/><br/>She was holding the bag with the crown, the papers, the bracelet. While Elleth heard Eckl's last words her mind drifted to the prophesy that had made her an orphan. That wasn't what Eckl had told her, buit the ring of truth to it was disturbingly accurate.<br/><br/>Then Eckl's words cycled to him telling Elleth his mission, she cancelled out her spell wordlessly, leaving her hand to trail in the water. Her fingertips were already numb from shock, so she wasn't uncomfortable with the cold.<br/><br/>" That's what he told me. And we may be in the same boat, but unlike you, I just found out that the man who raised me did it because he had an agenda. Because I was important. And he kept us a secret from the other on purpose, can't you see that? We were both orphans, both his direct pupils, and somehow we never knew or met?"<br/><br/>Her eyebrows were narrowed in barely reigned back fury.<br/><br/>" I am not a puppet. Nobody tells me what to do, where to go, or to let soemone else protect me like I'm some sort of child."