REXANNA
“Other means?” She nods to him in response, a sly smile crossing her face. “That room in the Settlement lets us feel everything again. But everywhere else is just… Nothing, really.” She says lightly with a shrug. But the next question he asks her gives her pause – she hasn’t really tried it, but she knows the comparison between her treks at night, and her attempts during the day under shaded skies.
“I’m faster at night.” She nods, glancing over to him with a smile. “Not like… Incredibly fast, I don’t think.” Another small shrug – she doesn’t know, hasn’t accurately compared it enough to know, to see how different it is. Perhaps on another day when the snow wasn’t deep in the streets, when her feet could actually catch on the gravel and rockery rather than the slick ice and snow.
Soon enough, he questions about the Voice, and her gaze drifts back toward him. For all things that people have said of the Voice, she had seen nothing of it. She had been nothing but gentle, kind, helpful – even when she Ascended and went back to Halyven, and the Voice’s voice had held an edge of something terrifying. But she wasn’t afraid, so to speak. She had only grown more determined, strong, sure of her decision to Ascend and forsake everything that had made her the way she was.
And she had come out different.
“I met her, sort of, for the first time when Lucas and I were in the Greatwood after Zariah placed the Greatwood ban in place. I didn’t know there was a ban, but guards appeared and were ready to take us to the jails. She appeared through Lucas, and while she could have said that Lucas was the only one with a quest from her in the Greatwood and let them take me off, she included me.” She says lightly at first, a hum, a memory, before she shrugs.
“And then I came to her when I wanted to Ascend, after Bastien had gone to ask if it was possible. We weren’t sure, I was the first to become both Ascended and something else. And she had been gentle and kind throughout it. I’ve never been afraid of her like I was of Frey. She’s never given me a reason to.” She shrugs again, eyes drifting back toward Loren with a slight smile. “But she had spent so long trapped in that tower, the barrier built to contain her and us I think from the rest of the world, by the Old Gods. It’s… Sad to think that you’d be stuck in a solitary tower for three hundred years. You do what you can, you become desperate.” She’s been there before – not for three hundred years, but trapped and confined in a place only to yourself.
You lose a part of yourself with each passing day. You’re never the same.
“I know they say that she’s terrible, but I’ve never felt that way. Even before I Ascended. She upgraded the Ascended's eyes when the barrier was still up, so they could see through it.”
“I’m faster at night.” She nods, glancing over to him with a smile. “Not like… Incredibly fast, I don’t think.” Another small shrug – she doesn’t know, hasn’t accurately compared it enough to know, to see how different it is. Perhaps on another day when the snow wasn’t deep in the streets, when her feet could actually catch on the gravel and rockery rather than the slick ice and snow.
Soon enough, he questions about the Voice, and her gaze drifts back toward him. For all things that people have said of the Voice, she had seen nothing of it. She had been nothing but gentle, kind, helpful – even when she Ascended and went back to Halyven, and the Voice’s voice had held an edge of something terrifying. But she wasn’t afraid, so to speak. She had only grown more determined, strong, sure of her decision to Ascend and forsake everything that had made her the way she was.
And she had come out different.
“I met her, sort of, for the first time when Lucas and I were in the Greatwood after Zariah placed the Greatwood ban in place. I didn’t know there was a ban, but guards appeared and were ready to take us to the jails. She appeared through Lucas, and while she could have said that Lucas was the only one with a quest from her in the Greatwood and let them take me off, she included me.” She says lightly at first, a hum, a memory, before she shrugs.
“And then I came to her when I wanted to Ascend, after Bastien had gone to ask if it was possible. We weren’t sure, I was the first to become both Ascended and something else. And she had been gentle and kind throughout it. I’ve never been afraid of her like I was of Frey. She’s never given me a reason to.” She shrugs again, eyes drifting back toward Loren with a slight smile. “But she had spent so long trapped in that tower, the barrier built to contain her and us I think from the rest of the world, by the Old Gods. It’s… Sad to think that you’d be stuck in a solitary tower for three hundred years. You do what you can, you become desperate.” She’s been there before – not for three hundred years, but trapped and confined in a place only to yourself.
You lose a part of yourself with each passing day. You’re never the same.
“I know they say that she’s terrible, but I’ve never felt that way. Even before I Ascended. She upgraded the Ascended's eyes when the barrier was still up, so they could see through it.”
until the lambs
have become
lions
