"How monstrous," Arialla said. The Ascended truly were beasts ... Was there a reason she'd thought otherwise, flickering at the back of her mind? No, no such belief could possibly survive the evening she'd had. "Why would anyone ... "
Her mind fell back to the whirl of sensation she'd experienced with the Ascended's teeth on her, and an answer occurred to her, one she abhorred, a fact she refused to acknowledge. She shuddered. "Never mind."
She took Gideon's hand as she rose, though she used his support only lightly, noting the cane he used. Perhaps it was for the best that he hadn't arrived in time to intervene in the attack -- not that Arialla wished to doubt his capabilities, but her attacker had been formidable. Even with her shifts, her ability to turn her hands into eagle's claws, she hadn't had the slightest chance to fight back.
Finding her feet, she went and picked up her basket, not for the broken container of stew but for the doll Mildew had given her. She didn't want to leave it, even if it hadn't helped her this time. Her mistake, probably; she should have held it closer.
To Gideon's question, she said, "There's a family I stay with, here in Torchline. I ... don't want them to see me like this, but I don't have a lot of other options."
The sea, whispered Arialla's mind, offering the ocean as a place of solace, a place that could wash away all of her troubles, all the filth of what had just happened. But, in practice, she knew that the ocean would not get the blood out of her clothes.
please don't take my sunshine away
