The rain had been violent for the past few days, one of the worst in the year, raining long hours and cloaking the nights in frosty colds. Neera's mind went to the poor people in town and wondered how they fared. She could remember how the rain had once drowned her mother's chickens, plunging the entire family into a month-long of no meat, which made her sisters irritable to no end.
They came up in her head now and again, her family, like fragments of a dream. Perhaps seeing Jasmine with hers had propelled her to make the decision to visit them soon, and she would let Zavian know. She wasn't expecting the love they never gave her, but she wanted to make sure they were okay. Family, no matter how far on the earth she went, still had an invisible string that tied her to them.
