Moonspear As if you knew who I am, as if you knew my name

SORRY FOR THE WAIT have a novel

A soft gasp escaped the woman, though Lyra's demeanor did not change. In truth, she had blamed herself for a day or two after Dacio's passing. Surface wounds were easy to heal, even bones she could mend with little consequence, but infection was a different monster. It slowly took away bits and pieces of the wolf before it ultimately killed them - there was no stopping it once it had gotten hold, no way to medically fend it off (at least not here in the wild). The most she could do was hope she eased his pain and treated his symptoms, all the while angry with her failings as a healer. She should have done more, somehow.

Yet the grief she felt was fleeting, and she reasoned that if more of her focus had been on Dacio, perhaps Osiris would have been the one who succumbed. The sacrifice was justified, in her mind. It was an outsider versus one who shared her Ostregan blood. And she would always favour blood.

So Lyra stood emotionless, staring at the girl as her questioning - pleading - gaze flit from her to Dirge. At her question, she drew in a breath to answer but her sister's husband quickly interjected. No. Whether he knew it or not, that was a lie. No matter how many herbs she had for the pain, she knew Dacio would have endured dull, never-ending aches and body-wracking shivers that she had watched many smaller creatures go through during her experiments. If Raleska had looked to her for confirmation, she would have only seen the bleak affirmation reflected back at her. However, in a rare show of empathy, Lyra held her tongue, realising it was needless to correct him.

Dirge moved on then, and Lyra then noticed Osiris had wedged himself between them. As his father spoke of the attack, she moved ever so slightly closer to her nephew, her shoulder only just brushing up against his own as a small show of protection, her gaze hardening. She better have hoped she had come alone. Lyra looked past the woman for any sign of movement beyond where they stood. "Wolfkillers," she muttered after Dirge's words, before she added her own information in a louder voice. "It was a woman who attacked my nephew," she said, lightly gesturing towards Osiris with a swing of her muzzle. "We do not know her name, but she travels with another, a one-eyed man named Merrick."