Ankyra Sound There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon

why? Raleska flinched from the voice, expecting then the blow that never came. She was waiting, waiting still -- believing at any moment, Drageda would flood the hills and it would all be over.

What use was even getting up? She was tired of fighting. She was ready to hand over her fate; gone was the vinegar from her blood, for she had learned the earth was ceaselessly cruel, no matter who or what occupied it. why would I hurt you? She blinked slowly - bringing her long gaze to look full upon a brother she recognized only by that rare coat color, that mask that could not be duplicated. "You're Dragedan. One of them." She answered simply, her voice thick with dull resignation.

It was not meant as an accusation. Raleska had denounced her family too, in a bitterly ironic twist of fate. Once upon a time she could not understand - would not understand - why Ephraim had done what he had done.. and now, she understood it implicitly. She had lived it - that hellish, hateful guilt. It resided in her bones, eating away at her strength, her security, her resolve.

Why are you here? Dare she admit what she had done? "Just.. felt like it, I guess." A lie. It was more than feeling. "I was looking for mom." She wondered, as she said that last word, if it would register with Ephraim - would guilt cross his features, as it polluted her own? She turned her neck to him, a ragged sigh leaving her thin throat. She still held onto the belief he was with Drageda, and Drageda would come across them in any moment. Better her life be taken quickly, before she was beat and tormented as Rosalyn had once been. "Get it over with, then." She would die with as much dignity as she could - which presently, felt like very little. But it was something.