2/9/2025, 12:39 AM
It was a deal. Steren felt warmth spread in her chest, but she couldn’t quite tell if it was happiness or frostbite just yet. The only time she’d done this before, she’d wound up bedbound with some kind of sickness in her chest. It hadn’t been the greatest of times, but she’d pulled through, and resolved to spend as little time outside in winter as possible.
Tyr told her of others, many who’d woken the same as she. She wondered if they missed their hands too. She did, but it was a lesser pain than everything else she lost. He told her of Lilja, a healer woman who’d been through much, and she gave a matronly tut, then examined where that had come from, and why it sounded so much like her mother. Children as well, which she had a fraught history with. They never did seem to enjoy her lectures in astronomical math. But she’d hold those in, for now.
Tyr told her of others, many who’d woken the same as she. She wondered if they missed their hands too. She did, but it was a lesser pain than everything else she lost. He told her of Lilja, a healer woman who’d been through much, and she gave a matronly tut, then examined where that had come from, and why it sounded so much like her mother. Children as well, which she had a fraught history with. They never did seem to enjoy her lectures in astronomical math. But she’d hold those in, for now.
That I can do.She said after a moment of silence, when the ground had turned from ice to sand and her riding upon Tyr’s back felt different with the change.
You’ve children?Of course he did, he’d just told her of them. Her brain felt like it was made of soup, the one she’d used to make with wild greens, and she breathed a sigh.
Tell me of them.His voice was easy to focus on. And she would hold onto that point of contact the longer they walked together.