"It was an accident," Ju Feng said.
"When I swore I would never use magic again, I broke my promise almost immediately. I locked all the dangerous spells away, yes, but even the little magics caused me pain. I kept those spells close, and cast them often. It was the only way I could forget."
"It's not so easy for the rest of us to forget," Ju Feng said. "The worst and the best memories stay with you. Some things you're supposed to experience, no matter how painful."
"Do words like that aid you, when you touch a man's bare flesh?" Chang Chang asked. "When you learn when he will die?"
"No," Ju Feng said. "But I still say the words. It's all I can do."
He turned his head away from her and tipped his hat down over his face. Chang Chang started to say something else but let it go.
She pulled the letters out of her pack and laid the bundle in her lap. The first she'd already read. She folded it carefully and laid it aside.
