Alysanne found hope in Lena’s encouraging words, speaking of finding family in uncanny of ways – and she thought of those she had already met and held so dear. Kahlua and Brisa, the wonderful mares that had been among her first experiences here in Helovia – fastening themselves to her heart so securely that she told tales of them to her son when she had met them. His new aunts, unbound by blood but by something else. Sweet Brisa and joyful Kahlua, who had woven her a gift that she still wore proudly on her head – a beautiful glass headband with a delicate heart at its centre. It might one day get lost and she would miss the light weight and the tinkling noise of the glass links, but the memory would remain of the bonds she had made here in Helovia.
Maybe she was wrong to speculate that she had not yet found family here.
She appreciated the soft apology from Lena, the sullen call from Imogen. They had all been touched and torn at by this sickness. Alysanne would have happily born the burden alone if it meant everyone else would have been saved from seeing friends turned, or from being attacked by those they loved. A sad smile is all she could manage at the question of whether everything was well. “As well as it could be. I’ve seen him once, since then. He was healed – by a young girl with powers similar to yours, actually.” She wasn’t sure why she had not picked up that connection before now, thinking of the brave little girl who had helped her ensure Miykael’s safety before Alysanne had hurried away, unwilling and afraid to comfort the one who had just thrown terrible truths at her. “But I’ve not spoken to him since then.” She wished there was something that Lena could do to make everything all right, or even a little better. Talking about what had happened… Alysanne had avoided it with passion. It hurt, those emerald eyes glossy with the tears she had not allowed herself to so much as spare a thought for in these days that they spent in the caves. Focusing for a moment on the vines that dangled above and next to their heads, she willed them not to become more than that gloss. There was no shame in crying, but she would not burden her newest friend with any more than she already had.
She wondered whether Lena’s healing powers could mend a heart that was broken, but thought it too silly of a request to ask. So instead she asked something else, the question that had been bothering her all this time – the answer to which she had assumed but perhaps she was wrong. “Do… do you think, when they’re sick, they are capable of speaking the truth? Of pulling out memories and using them as weapons?” Alysanne did not believe that her friends were in control of their actions or their words – but maybe whatever possessed them could access what was in their minds. “He told me something when he was sick and I don’t know whether to believe it or not.”
@[Lena]
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