Lusia As darkness settled in on me, heavy and oppressive, it blurred the sounds of the battlefield. Blood, silver, Dane's protective growl, into a distant pantheon of despair. I felt my body as a broken vessel: bruised and aching, clothed in the cold mud of a torn border. My heavy eyelids slowly parted, forming the world into a blurry visage, as if gazing through panes streaked with rain. Above me, sage, chamomile, and something sharper—somewhere between crushed nettle, wafted in my nose for grounding. I lay on coarse linen in a small, stone-walled, coolly damp room, only lit by a lantern whose golden glow flickered above the low ceiling. My tunic was shredded; my arms were caked in blood and dirt, and my dark curls were matted against my cheek.A face loomed over me, weathered and stern–an elderly female healer, her silver hair braided tightly, her eyes narrowed in a frown that carved deep lines into her leathery skin. She wore a gray robe, stained with herb dust, and her presence
Last Updated : 2025-05-28 Read more