̣⭒˙✵• ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯☽✮☾⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ •✵˙⭒ ̣

Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?

Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze?

Cold comfort for change? Did you exchange

A walk-on part in the war for the lead role in a cage?

Wish you were here – Pink Floyd

The creaking wood adds tension to the already thick atmosphere inside the shed. Courtesy and discomfort vibrate with the same intensity. A shadow between the rafters stifles an exasperated sigh and opens an eye.

"Thanks for bringing the books. I really needed to brush up on some of the Shore dialects," Eris smiles, clutching the books to her chest.

"We can go over them together, if you want."

The redhead is persistent. She comes here almost every morning to check on the stray, always with some excuse. And today, she's brought along another annoying tagalong.

"Nini, it's not necessary. You're all already busy with your shifts. Zahir told me that after the Solstice they'll be assigning roles for the Shore. The network needs rebuilding, right?"

"Yeah, and you're coming with us. I'm not going anywhere without my best friend."

"You don't have to wait for me. The alpha title doesn't mean anything anymore. Nest and Zoriar could be assigned to the Shore with you. You won't be alone."

"But the Shore was your dream too," Nilde's tone heats up. "You can't pretend it doesn't matter to you!"

"I'm not pretending. I get it now. My brother was right. The valley is my home. There's nothing good waiting for me out there."

"We all know how Lyrion is," the other Wolf laughs, exchanging a glance with Nilde. "If he could, he'd carry you on his back for the rest of his life, just to keep you safe."

"You'll see. After the next check-up, you'll be as clear as you were before the war."

"You guys are good friends," Eris's fake smile fades, "but this act is getting old. I must look like a wreck if you think I need your pity."

"Eris, that's not—"

"Ernest, please, let me finish." Where have I heard that name before? I can't quite place it. "I'm tired of hearing you go on about plans for the future, the adventures waiting for us in the Shore, the meals at the Den, the Solstice. I don't even know where I'll be by the end of winter. Stop coming here every day and leave me alone!"

"We've been friends for life, how can you ask us that?" Nilde is shocked.

"Exactly because we've been friends for so long, I'm asking you. Don't I make you feel sorry enough? Do you really have to remind me every single day of what I've lost?"

"But Eris..."

"No, Nest, let's go. Looks like we're no longer welcome here."

The pair leaves the shed. Eris exhales a sigh of relief.

"I know you're there," the girl raises her voice just enough. "No one's coming to visit me anymore, you can come out now."

The shadow tilts past the beam and lands on the straw. What a miserable place!

"How do you stand it in here?" Tear locks eyes with Eris.

"You're right. Why don't we go outside?" With a half-smile, she lifts her right leg to show the chain that keeps her anchored to the stone floor.

"I could free you, if you asked. I'm pretty good with locks." It's the third time I've asked her, I already know what she'll say.

"You shouldn't get into trouble because of me."

The girl stands up, the marks of the chain visible on her ankle.

"Don't you want to breathe some fresh air? It's suffocating in here."

"It's no problem, actually, it's the best thing about this place," she steps closer to him. "No one can smell you, you're invisible here."

The long shirt covering Eris has grown too loose, and one of her shoulders peeks out from the neckline. She's lost a lot of weight in these months, her pale complexion is striking. Since the Harvest, they've forbidden her from living at the Den with her kin. Mutts are beasts. But, honestly, I don't really care. The only thing that bothers me is spending hours here without doing much.

"Didn't you overdo it with those two, stray? I thought they were your friends."

"They are, the best friends I've ever had," her nostalgic smile is genuine, "but if they insist on staying stuck here with me, they'll never see the Shore. Especially now that even the gregarious have a chance to join the network. Nest can finally live with his parents, and Nini will be with her older sister. I don't have the right to ruin their dreams."

"But you have no problem making decisions for them."

"I have to," her eyes drop to her palms, "they'd never have the courage to cut this bond. They'd never let me go."

"And is that what you want? To be left behind?"

Eris bites her lip, then regains her polite smile.

"Enough with the questions! By the way, you brought it, right?" She slips her hands into the young man's pockets, then begins rummaging under his sweatshirt.

"Stray, take it easy," the custos only has to take a step back to get out of the chain's reach and find the right distance.

With a leap, he grabs a backpack off a beam, pulls out a book, and shows it to her. He'd found it while on a mission for the Flock. It had been tossed on the counter at a second-hand market. The author's name sounded familiar. He'd never seen that title in the Popular Culture and Literature of the Shore. How many other books had been discarded by the Council? How many thousands of titles did we not even know existed?

"Hurry up! I want to know what happens next."

Her mismatched eyes fill with joy, and the air grows warmer and more inviting. Eris pulls him beside her, forcing him to sit next to her, his back against one of the shed's columns.

"Where did we leave off last time?" Tear flips through the pages until he finds the pressed flower Eris has used as a bookmark.

"Here, we were right here," she points to the beginning of a new paragraph.

"So... All night he ran, blundering in the darkness into mishaps and obstacles that delayed but did not daunt. By the middle of the second day he had been running continuously for thirty hours, and the iron of his flesh was giving out. It was the endurance of his mind that kept him going. He had not eaten in forty hours, and he was weak with hunger. The repeated drenchings in the icy water had likewise had their effect on him. His handsome coat was dranggled. The broad pads of his feet were bruised and bleeding..."

Eris rests her head on the boy's shoulder, her eyes closed as she loses herself in the story. I've been reading for her for weeks now, even though she could easily do it herself. I tried to tell her it wasn't a problem to lend her a few books from my collection. "You have a nice voice, I prefer to listen to you," she replied. Only she could say something that strange. The boy stifles a half-laugh. She's always been like this, even during the war. Sometimes, it feels like I'm still sitting beside her on the pebbles, but it's already been over six months since that day.

The Raven's voice continues to read, but his mind drifts back to the battlefield. The deafening whistle pressing him into the roof tiles, the Flower of the river, monstrous and invincible, and Eris standing tall in front of the threat, her body covered in miasma stains. The sound suddenly grew sharper, the weapon slipping from her grip as she collapsed to her knees, pressing her palms to her temples in despair. The miasma patches spread like a tarry web beneath her amber-colored skin, her eyes losing all color, glowing with a deep, abyssal white. Suddenly, the air filled with a comforting warmth. The tension in Eris's face disappeared, replaced by a beguiling smile as her hands reached for the nearest of the monster's heads.

In that moment, Tear had felt it too, clear and strong as on the bridge—desire, no, the need to be consumed by that comforting oblivion, to obey any command just to embrace that warmth, if only for an instant. Every fiber of his body moved to follow that impulse, crawling across the roof, extending a hand, but unable to touch it. Then, the croí's fingers had latched onto the Flower's scales, and the monster had exploded in a violet-black rain. The liquid gradually disappeared, absorbed into the girl's skin. The warmth faded along with Eris' smile, and with them, the power that had crushed them into the roof tiles and the call Tear had felt just a breath ago.

Silence took over, unreal. The brown curls had stretched into strands of tar, her skin devoured by a single layer of black, broken only by two deep white streaks on her face, like tears cutting her cheeks from her eyes of the same color. Tear had jumped to his feet at the sight.

"Stray?" Eris didn't answer, her eyes fixed on some distant point on the horizon. "Hey, stray! Can you hear me?"

He shook her by the shoulders, and the burn of corruption immediately spread into his flesh, the tips of his fingers darkening instantly. He let go. The violet-black halos disappeared almost instantly from his skin, while Eris's continued to absorb the remnants of miasma. Is this what contamination looks like in a Wolf? Is she dying?

"Stray, wake up!"

The fear of contagion vanished, and the custos embraced the croí's body, ignoring the fire of miasma that began crackling back into his flesh. It felt like holding a burning tree. The color started to spread over his snow-white skin, but he didn't let go.

"You can't give up now," he cupped her face in his hands. "They're all waiting for you. Your brother, your friends, the brownish-red-haired Wolf... I'll take you to them, but you have to hold on!"

"Am I... am I a monster?" The girl's eyes were hollow, her words barely a breath on her lips.

Who is she talking to? An electric jolt ran through the Raven's skin, a sorrow with no escape, trembling his body until tears welled up, while the blackness continued to gnaw at him, bite by bite.

The citadel vanished before his eyes, as did the weight of Eris in his arms. He was kneeling at the edge of a cliff. Where am I? I don't remember ever being here. He glanced around, unable to recognize the path. His eyes dropped, drawn by the sound of muffled sobs. There's a little girl trapped in the brambles. He reached out without hesitation. The chasm disappeared, replaced by the twisted branches of the Sycamore. No longer was there a child, but a terrified girl. One step back, and gravity pulled her into the void. Tear's reflexes shot him forward to save her, but the amber skin slipped from his grasp, and in that instant, the scene shifted again. The Sycamore's roots, the dark, and that invincible shimmer in her soul, commanding him to give in, to surrender. He had never wanted something more than to disappear beyond those lips, even when the pain of contact became unbearable. This is my place, I can finally stop fighting.

The electric sensation faded, and the weight of Eris suddenly became real again. The girl was breathing heavily, her body wracked with shivers, her face contorted in agony. I have to take her back. We need to find the others before it's too late. He lifted her into his arms and realized, in that moment, that the corruption of the miasma had spread throughout his own body.

"Stay with me, Eris," words escaped his lips, uncontrolled. "We'll get out of here together. It will be okay."

He ran, leaping from one rooftop to the next, until he reached the edge of the walls. In the new city, what was left of Gleann's army scattered the streets, balconies, and still-standing rooftops, senses heightened, waiting for the Flower's next move. Tear walked silently, under the gaze of all the Pack, before gently placing Eris on the ground. Her appearance was no longer as terrifying as before, but her skin was mottled with black spots and a web of dark capillaries. Once the contact was broken, Tear's color gradually returned. Only the tips of his fingers and the shadows around his eyes remained black.

Lyrion was the first to approach, desperation choking his words. He reached out to touch his sister, but the Raven swatted his hands away.

"Don't touch her," his gray-blue eyes pierced the Wolf without mercy.

At that, some of the Pack members closed in, surrounding the young man, their lips drawn back in a continuous snarl. The custos rose, his face impassive as he scanned those present, before his gaze stopped on Zahir.

"Your mate needs ambrosia, she's been contaminated," he raised a hand to show his fingers darkened by the miasma. "You mustn't touch her."

"I hear footsteps," the voice of the croí interrupts the reading, pulling the Raven back to the present.

Tear quickly closes the book, leaping up to grab a beam in the ceiling, vanishing into the shadows. The door creaks open, and a bright smile reaches Eris. I hoped he wouldn't come.

"How do you feel today?"

"Same as usual," Eris stands, her thin collarbones and part of her chest visible through the neckline. "Did something happen, Zahir?"

"Why do you ask?"

"You never visit me in the mornings," the girl reaches out to lightly brush the fiáin's hand.

"I needed to see you," Zahir steps back, avoiding her touch.

"That's not true. What happened?"

"My brother will check on you before the Solstice. If everything is back to normal, the Elders will discuss your reintegration."

"Otherwise?"

"It won't come to that, everything will be fine, just like it was with Siobhan."

Eris's eyes widen, fists clenched. Is the idiot still not getting that he shouldn't say that name here?

"You know I'm not like her. What will happen if I'm still tainted?"

"That's something you'll have to ask your father."

"I understand."

The stray's parents stopped coming here at least three months ago. How could she ask anything of her father?

"I was thinking, if you're better by the Solstice, we could... I would like us to mix—"

"Thank you for coming to inform me, Zahir," Eris bows her head. "I'm sorry to be such a burden, and I don't want to take up any more of your time."

His smile fades, the words dying in his throat. The sadness in his eyes is invisible to the croí, who keeps her gaze lowered, staring at the floor.

"Then I'll see you later," Zahir leaves the shed without taking his eyes off Eris.

Tear waits a few more seconds, then lets himself fall backward into the void, doing a flip and landing softly on the ground.

"Finally, good news. They want to release you, don't they?"

Eris sits back down, fingers gently tracing the links of her chain.

"Even if they take this off me, I wouldn't gain any more freedom than I already have now."

"But you could live with your own kind, right?"

"My own kind, yes," her mismatched eyes lift to meet the Raven's, the one gray-blue iris seeming to want to devour him. "Zahir didn't want to tell me, but my time is running out. If the test fails, they'll stop bringing me food and drink. A warrior can't kill another, but thirst..."

"You say that as if you can't wait to die in this shack."

"It doesn't make any difference to me anymore," Eris's polite smile grows deeper and emptier.

"If you really wanted to die, you could have let a Flower eat you."

"That would've been better!" Eris's voice cracks.

"Do you really think so?" Tear's indifferent expression doesn't change.

"And why do you care?" The croí tries to compose herself with a deep breath. "The war is over, our alliance stayed on the battlefield with everything else. My health doesn't concern you. You're no longer obligated to stitch me back together and nurse me."

The custos remains silent, only watching her as though expecting more.

"Why won't you leave me alone? Why do you come every day?"

Because I was asked to watch over you, and I obeyed. I've been obeying since before the war, since before the brawl with the Wolves. "I don't know, I think I've picked up a bad habit."

"If it's a bad habit, you should stop."

"You're right."

Tear sits next to her, his back against the wooden column.

"Then why don't you leave?"

"I'm sorry, stray," he leans just enough to meet her gaze. "I'm not one of your little friends. You won't get rid of me by throwing lies at me."

"What lies?!"

"I want to be alone, I want to disappear, I don't care anymore," a sly smile curves on the custos's face. "I've told you before, you're too honest. Anyone who knows you even a little can tell when you're lying and when you're sincere."

"You think you know me that well?"

"It's not hard to understand what you really want. You want your place in the Pack back, to see your family again, to live in the Shore with your friends, and mix your blood with that tall brownish-redhead."

"What are you talking about!" Eris blushes all the way to her ears, then lets out a laugh. "I don't know how you do it."

"How do I do what?"

"Always know everything."

"They didn't tell you? Ravens can read minds."

"That's not true."

"Want to bet?" Tear closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Right now, you're wondering why I haven't started reading again."

Eris blinks in surprise, then bursts out laughing.

"Did I guess right?"

"I'm not telling you," she presses her lips with crossed fingers. "If you can really read minds, you already know the answer."

"It's not an unlimited power, I can only use it a couple of times a day," he catches her smile and returns it.

"You're such a fool!"

"Coming from you, that must be a compliment."

Tear opens the book again, calmly resuming the reading. It's because you're so honest and innocent that it's been easy to manipulate you from the very start. You've danced on the palm of my hand without even realizing it. How much longer will this go on? My reports have turned into a long list of 'nothing has changed.' It won't be long before my guardians reassign me to another task. At least I hope I'll have enough time to figure out how this story ends.

̣⭒˙✵• ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯☽✮☾⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ •✵˙⭒ ̣