The time came again for Anna and Kiara to walk the secret road. It had been nearly a full year to the day since Kiara and James first conversed plainly about their kinship and the air was very different. For their seventh visit, Anna seemed less a meek and mild-mannered Who and more a shark out for blood. The pair's journey towards the grave was less like the solemn walk of the year before and nothing at all like the playful prances of Kiara's younger years- and decidedly unlike the care-free carries of her youngest years. On this occasion, Anna was a soldier on the march, with all the confidence of a sword at her side and a host of comrades behind her.

When, at last, mother and daughter arrived at the yard, a break in the tradition took place. It was the custom that Kiara would walk to and up the hill while Anna waited some distance away, but, during their seventh visit, the Madame Anna asked that the opposite be done: That she be left to meet the good sir alone while Kiara waited some distance away. After asking (more commanding, actually), she marched onward without a reply and soon after stood but a stone's throw away from the tomb of Ellie Gibbs. Kiara, being a seven-year-old, did not wait where she was told. Rather, she came up to the foot of the hill in silence. This was what she heard:

Madame-

Don't bother with that! I've nursed your daughter at my own breast. You can and you will call me by my fate!

Anna... I am sorry. But there is nothing I can do.

Rubbish, good sir. Complete rubbish and you know it!

I can hardly afford to keep the house! I can't be expected to keep you on! Don't you know how hard this has been on me? My own fellows... The fellowship of my youth... To break faith with so many in so short a time... I'm on the edge of madness!

Keep me on? Breaking faith? I don't give a hairy crack of a rat's behind about myself! Nor am I worried about my comrades! We are good people of good work! If the Fates be good too, we'll find our footing! What about her?

From out of his coat, James produced a purse filled with coin enough for two years of delightful living or five years of decent living. With his head bowed, he offered the gift to Anna who slapped it out of his hand in as violent a fashion as she could muster. As the purse struck the ground, Anna began with even louder voice, saying...

Is this supposed to quiet me?

It's all I can spare.

Your daughter is not a spare! Or are you sending Darius away as well?

What do you want from me?

I want you to fight! Fight for your daughter! Take her with you, wherever you go! Take pride in her! Terrify her suitors! Dance at her wedding! Spoil her children! By the pinky, aren't you Lord James the Good, the Son of Gibbs? Are your eyes not ruby and emerald? How dare you shut them? How dare you make yourself blind? I beg you, if I must say farewell, let me say farewell to the Who I knew before and not this jinxed slave, licking the feet of a witch.

Watch your tongue! That is my wife!

And the mother of your children, no? Do not be deceived, she is the most wicked Who I've ever met. I'd even dare call her an ape, so empty of humanity is she. (after a breath) Good sir... I beg you.

His head still hung low, James paced slowly to the purse, took it up and placed it gently in Anna's hand as he got down on one knee. The wind then picked up. The clouds were rolling past. And as the night came down, a thunderous boom came with it. Feeling a swell of great pity, Anna touched James on his greying hair and kissed his aged crown before walking off with the purse, saying...

Farewell, Lord Gibbs, Who among apes.

Following her descent, Anna noticed that Kiara had come closer and offered her a last chance to speak with her father. She refused. And so the two walked away from the hill and the hunchback tree and the shadow which hung over the tomb of Ellie Gibbs. And Kiara Nurse would, afterwards, force herself to be quite content with seeing the world through dark lenses since she quite hated her eyes- the Eyes of Gibbs.