#Chapter 23: Determined to Move Forward

Nicholas What I said hadn’t been a lie. I did have other wrist guards, made by artisans and leatherworkers from all across the country. Yet none of them had been quite as meaningful as the one handmade for me by Piper. Hers was more comfortable too. I wasn’t sure how she could remember the size of my wrist without having examined me, but she had crafted the guard to fit snuggly but not too tightly. Just how I preferred it. Did she perhaps remember when I had complained about other wrist guards in the past? It seemed unlikely. When I had first found the wrist guard, I had disregarded the thought that Piper had been the one to give me this gift. Yes, she was the only one here who had prior knowledge of my condition. But when she had broken up with me three years ago, she had done so without warning. And seemingly without remorse. She left me, dropped out of the Academy, and disappeared straight off the planet. None of our mutual friends had been able to get a hold of h