Sometimes the hardest secrets to keep are your own.
I'm a Safe-Keeper. The silent kirrenberry tree is my plant counterpart, and I am entrusted with the secrets to everyone's souls if they should share them with me. I cannot tell a secret that has been dictated to me, and according to my sister, Eleda, that is purely infuriating. Yes, I have a mirror twin. She is a Truth-Teller, or one who must always speak truly. We look so similar, only few can tell us apart. Everything about us is opposite…and when we look at each other, we see ourselves.
I know she plans to write an account of our lives, when we're old and gray. She's told me so. I can't tell her my secrets, but it's like a dam, overflowing to where I can hardly hold my stories in. And so, I must tell my journal something of this forbidden life I lead. I can't go on pretending I can keep this secret.
Not when I can't.
For once, Adela Safe-Keeper wants nothing more than for the truth to be known, and knows it can never be.
I've always been friends with Roelynn. And she's always had a brother, Micah, and a father, Delton Karro…if you can remember his first name. We all call him Karro.
Eleda's been my closest ever since I was little, but I never confessed to her. I was wary early on. When Roelynn let it slip that she had soiled her best stockings for the Summermoon, Eleda had instantly tattled to Micah, who watched the household when Roelynn was little, when he inquired as to how preparations for Summermoon were going.
It's never been any different. After some time, Roelynn and myself learned not to trust Eleda with things meant to remain unsaid. I found that if I had something to say, not necessarily a secret, I could trust Micah, who was quiet and adventurous, but repressed by Karro.
Eleda and Roelynn overlooked him: they never knew how interesting he was, what he could fascinate you with during conversation. They never understood how close we became.
Even after Wintermoon that year, with the white stone…
I remember the very first time Micah and myself had time to talk to just each other, and not worry…
