Someone told me not to cry.

It was the first time Miraye had asked him about his past. The question was simple, but Tic found it hard to respond. He hadn't thought about his family in a long time. He'd chosen not to.

"I had a little sister." He kept turning his palm idly over in the conjured flame, needing something to do with his hands. The warmth of the enchanted flame awed him. He had learned to accept Miraye's magic as commonplace by now, though he always wondered about it. Had Miraye been learning it since a young age, or like him, found her powers by chance?

Miraye peered from beneath her cloak, looking smaller than usual. Tic hadn't noticed before how young she really was. She looked child-like when she wasn't fighting for their lives. Almost innocent.

"What's her name?" she asked. Miraye's curiosity bothered Tic a little, though he tried not to show it.

He had to think for a moment before answering. "Mia," he said. "Her name was Mia," he repeated, assuring himself he had not forgotten.

"Pretty," said Miraye.

"Yeah," he said. There was more silence, more awkward turning of his palm. He tried to think about something else, not knowing how his expression changed.

Miraye was aware of how Tic spoke of his sister, in had's and was's. She heard the way his voice changed when she questioned him. It was obvious the girl was dead.

"I'm sorry," she uttered quietly. Tic did not respond. Feeling it best not to press him any further, she turned onto her side and tried to sleep.

"We lived in New Jeda," Tic said from the silence. "We couldn't afford anywhere else."

Miraye raised herself, knowing for sure she'd never fall asleep. "Oh?"

"A few years ago, the government went after people who couldn't pay the new tithe. They were only supposed to put us in jail..." he paused. "But that was too humane for them."

His hand shook as he squeezed his knuckles white, as if trying to grip the enchanted flame. Suddenly he didn't want this ability. The guilt hit him as soon as he spoke it.

"I could've saved them."

Miraye sighed, putting her hand on Tic's shoulder. "You didn't know," she said.

Tic turned his face away; he did not want her to see his eyes, even in the dim light of the flame. A long silence passed as he struggled to clear the evidence of crying from his voice. He swallowed the knot in his throat several times. Pressured by the awkward silence, he asked Miraye something he'd been wondering since he'd met her.

"How did you learn magic?"