Like this, much time passed. The spring came and went, the people tending their fields, new livestock being born.

In the summer, they held a great celebration in honor of Relnsif. This time around, not totally insensate with grief, he was able to understand the way in which the people misinterpreted what had happened: they thought that Lady Hélna's soul was freed, not her body, and that since she had fallen from the sky after embracing her Relnsif, it was Relnsif who sacrificed himself to save Hélna after she used up all her divine power. This was how they reasoned out the change in appearance, too, and why the cat itself had disappeared; they thought Hélna's body had been transformed by melding together with his.

It was infuriatingly close to being correct, just missing the tiny detail that he had not saved Hélna, that this was Hélna's body with a different soul.

Even if he had a voice, could he tell them?

These people had been kind to him, but only because they thought he was Helna; and they even honored the noble, fallen Relnsif, painting little cat motifs on everything.

Could he ruin that for them?

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