One day, Eryon heard the words he had been waiting for: they had found him a family. The adults told him he would finally be leaving this place, that he would now go to a home where he would be cared for, loved, and—most importantly—free. The moment filled him with a strange, unfamiliar sense of excitement. His heart fluttered with hope, the same hope Emily had carried with her when she left.
As they led him through the same grand hall Emily had walked months earlier, Eryon allowed himself to dream. Perhaps this was his chance, his opportunity to meet Emily again, to find her in the outside world where the promise of a better life awaited them both. He would finally see what lay beyond the orphanage's walls, finally understand the life he had been denied for so long. His future seemed brighter than it ever had before.