regrets

mahariel feels that she failed tamlen, nothing anyone, not even the apparatition in the temple of sacred ashes, can say will change that.

she sank to her knees, clutching the necklace the not-tamlen had given her. he looked sad. she looked worse. face contorted into a mixture of sorrow, regret, pain. her companions, stunned, could not find words. their fearless leader, brought to her knees and broken by a ghost. they flinched when she spoke, like broken glass in the rain.
"we could have gone home."