Reposted by Amal El-Mohtar
'The sword is there, if you want it.'
A sword for you, on the last day of Swordtember.
Amal El-Mohtar
@amalelmohtar.com
23K followers 469 following 6.3K posts
Wrote half of This Is How You Lose the Time War & all of The River Has Roots. Next book: Seasons of Glass & Iron, March 24, 2026. I have a newsletter you can sign up for at amalelmohtar.com
![As her mother's life fell away from her, so did Madeline's. She took a leave of absence from her job and kept extending it; she stopped seeing her friends; her friends stopped seeing her. Madeleine is certain her friends expected her to be relieved when her mother died and were surprised by the depth of her mourning. She didn't know how to address that. She didn't know how to say to those friends, [italic] you are relieved to no longer feel embarrassed around the subject, and expect me to sympathize with your relief, and to be normal again for your sake.[/italic] so she said nothing.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:37afjffxrp4j3mcrdmwxcgu3/bafkreigr52fhlr545tbbgvpfyyiyyljqijsufipzy5cct3kholuday7emy)
