But did she really know?
Did she know how worried he had been the entire time she was away?
Did she know what it felt like to stand helpless, knowing that the one you had protected since the moment she was born was being mistreated somewhere beyond your reach?
Did she understand the kind of rage and pain that came from imagining his treasured child abandoned, dismissed, and left vulnerable in a place that didn't see her worth?
Probably not.
And probably not until she found herself in that same position one day.
King Garick gritted his teeth as their blows clashed again, a sharp shockwave tearing through the arena floor.
He didn't want her to experience what his sister had endured.
Even now, he could still see his little sister's smile, bright but hollow, before she had fallen to the false promises of a human who had never intended to protect her.
She had died for it.
And Garick had carried the weight of it ever since.
