The morning before the final battle, the team remember Harding.
The team shared their last meal together in the Lighthouse conservatory.
The greenhouse felt empty without Lace Harding, even as all of them crammed in one after the other. The flowers were still there. The herbs and the wisps and the pots that needed to be filled and the vegetables that needed to be harvested. But it had lost it's gardener. The mother that had nurtured it.
And they had lost a dear friend.
"She would have liked this," Taash said as they laid down some of the blankets for picnic rugs on the floor near the fountain. "All of us eating here together. With her plants."
"She would," Rook agreed as she laid out the present she had bought for Harding upon her empty bedroll. The warm, woven shawl would lay there unused for eternity. "I hope we can do a memorial for her after today. Something nice—like what we did for your mother."
Taash nodded—even though Rook could see the misery in their eyes of going through yet another loved one's funeral so soon. "I haven't told her ma yet," they swallowed. "I… There just hasn't been time. And I…"
"I'll go with you," Rook promised them. "After all this. We'll go together. You don't have to do this alone."
"Okay." Taash gave a watery smile. "Thanks." Davrin beside them gave them a shoulder bump and a reassuring pat on the back. They wiped their eyes and looked to the glass ceiling. "Thanks."
