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When Silco offers to talk to Powder, Vander is desperate, grief-sickened enough that he agrees. Vi has been gone for a week, the Enforcers have barely stopped coming with their questions, Mylo and Claggor are shaken, crying shadows of who they were and Powder...
Powder doesn't move from her bed. Won't eat, won't talk and Vander is so certain that he's going to lose her too.
So he says yes. Silco goes inside the room and sits down on th floor. Powder's eyes are open, blinking slow tears into her pillow.
"Powder," Silco says softly. She was so little, the last time she saw 'uncle Silco', five years old. Vander wonders if she remembers him. "I'm so sorry for your loss."
He expects nothing. But Powder sniffs, whispers a:"I killed my sister," that breaks Vander's heart.
Silco cocks his head to the side in that calculating way of his: years ago Vander would have been able to read him, know what he's thinking, now he only hurts.
"Yes, you did," Silco says, and in the midst of the shock roaring between Vander's ears, Silco continues. "Does that make you feel better?"
Vander doesn't get to yell, because somehow, Silco's words were enough for Powder to blink her huge eyes and look at Silco, actually look at him.
"If I say yes, does that bring Violet back?" Silco asks, not completely unkindly. "You are hurting, Powder; this is... it's a terrible loss. But making yourself the villain of this awful accident won't bring your sister back."
Powder's lip trembles as she hugs Vi's old jacket closer to herself. Vander sees Silco reach and push Powder's hair behind her ear, wipe her face with his thumb, gentle and he remembers Silco, carrying her when she was a newborn baby, promising glory and fame.
"So now, sweetheart, you've got a choice, and I am so sorry that you have to go through this again, Powder," Silco waits.
Finally, Powder sniffs, asks: "What choice?"
"How do you want your sister's memory to be," Silco says simply. "Something brittle that breaks in pain, or something enduring, strong enough to hold even the sky?"
Powder's lower lip trembles, and then she's sobbing, calling for Vi-- but she's crying the way she should, pouring out all her heartbreak, and when Silco gathers her is his arms she clings to him arms and legs and Silco just holds her as she breaks down; Vander realizes Silco will be there to help her build herself again, so, for that moment, he lets them be.