"I tried really hard to heal Farla," Kala said and her eyes teared as she tried to blink them away. "The most I could do was heal her body, but she was already gone. Raging Phoenix...thinks she failed Farla by not protecting her enough. It shouldn't have mattered if Farla was old or not, but I think she blames herself for Farla's death maybe as much as I blame myself. I guess all of us wanted so very much to be able to complete the mission Farla and Gabrel had started that linking worked the way it should. I'm not sure there's much of Risingtide left, to be honest, but I hope we can repair him at some point. I was even studying how to do that. I think that sometimes, in order to do the best you can, you have to let go of whatever is stopping you from achieving your goal."

Kala brushed a tangle of hair from her face and looked sheepish.

"I guess I ought to follow my own advice and stop being scared of heights."