You are not your mother, Thana. Where she saw only despair, you find reasons to keep fighting. I see it in every choice you make, every battle you take on. Strength isn't the absence of painâit's carrying it and still moving forward, and you do that every day in ways she never could.
Excerpt of recovered correspondence of Lieutenant Xaden Riorson to Thana Valaren.
~
The damp air clung to Thana's skin, thick with the scent of mould and something metallic. Her head throbbed, her limbs ached, but none of it compared to the ice that shot through her veins as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
A figure sat on the stone floor beside her.
Thin fingers twisted in the ends of tangled hair. A once-elegant dress, now tattered, pooled around her frail frame. Her skin, waxen and stretched, barely clung to the sharp angles of her bones. She rocked slightly, moving in jerky, unnatural shifts, her breath rasping through cracked lips.
She was humming a familiar song, but Thana couldn't quite place it.
The figure had their back to Thana and she could see every notch in her spine. She crawled silently catch a glimpse of the woman in front of her. At the sight of her, Thana scrambled back, her spine colliding with the cold stone wall.
The woman didn't flinch. Didn't turn. Just kept humming, her head tilted toward some unseen presence.
Thana clasped her hand over her mouth as she scrambled to the door and banged her hand on it, looking over her shoulder to keep an eye on woman.
"Please" she sobbed, "help me."
The woman went still. Her head turned slowly, and clouded eyes fixed on Thana.
She pivoted in place, too-long nails scraping against the floor. Thana held her gaze, but it was as if the woman was looking straight through her.
Thana sobbed, scrambling to her feet and banging both her fists on the door, shaking her head so violently her vision blurred.
With that, the door groaned open causing Thana to stumble backwards.
She flinched as light slashed across the cell, silhouetting the figure that stepped inside.
Dain.
She nearly collapsed with relief, her breath shuddering as she ran to him, her hands clutching his forearms. "Dain, please," she gasped, gesturing wildly toward the emaciated woman who sat on the floor. "Let me outâplease, I can'tâ"
He didn't react. Didn't even glance toward the figure.
Thana's stomach lurched.
He couldn't see her.
Dain held Thana up, his face calm, almost gentle. His fingers brushed against her temple, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "You'll be okay," he murmured.
He pressed something into the palm of her hand and then, he turned and walked out, the door shutting with a final, resounding thud.
Thana buckled.
No.
No.
No.
She collapsed, her shoulders shaking, her breath coming in sharp gasps as she lifted her head.
The woman was still humming, scratching circles in the ground.
"Oh Gods," Thana whimpered. "Oh Gods, help me."
Thana squeezed her eyes shut and screamed down the bond for Válka with everything left inside her.
For a heartbeat, there was nothing. An echoing abyss.
Thenâ
A pulse, faint but there, on the edges of her mind.
Her mother's song broke, her lips parting to speak. "The Gods can't help you, Thana."
Darkness swallowed Thana whole.
~
Thana awoke in a soft bed, her body covered in a warm blanket. The sterile scent of healing herbs filled her nostrils, and she could hear the soft murmur of voices nearby.
She turned her head slightly, and her heart ached as she saw Liam sitting beside her, his hand cupped in hers and head resting on the edge of her bed, asleep. Across the room, Garrick sat in a chair, his posture relaxed as he slept.
Through the gap in the curtain, she could see Xaden standing just outside, speaking in low tones to a healer. His expression was unreadable, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. Whatever they were saying was out of earshot, but the tension in his stance told her enoughâit was about her.
Thana's heart squeezed, but it was the absence of somethingâor someoneâthat pulled at her.
She reached out in her mind, calling for the one who had saved her, the one who had been there when everything else had failed.
Válka? she whispered.
His voice came to her like a distant rumble, warm and comforting. I'm here, Thana.
Thana let out a sigh of relief. Thank you, she said, knowing it was Válka who sent out a search party to look for her.
If the world burned down, I'd still search the ashes for you, Thana. His words wrapped around her, offering a sense of safety she hadn't realized that she needed.
She smiled, a small, fragile thing, but it was enough. Rest now, Thana. You just rest.