Redsand Canyon the day pressed on like crushing weights

While he moved, Sivugat tracked him with his remaining ear. It was perhaps the only part of himself that moved at all, except his sides, as he took the time to measure his breaths.

To hear Aventus talk of a companion, Sivu thought immediately of Avicus, having not been around to see the dissolution of the sibling's relationship or the growth of their rivalry; but he lifted his eyes slightly to train upon the dark boy's core, attentive and cautious, when the thought of the girl arrived to him.

His question was met with hesitation. Sivugat's jaw tensed. He thought of what he could say and then as Merrick was mentioned, he lost the willpower to speak up, his tongue suddenly heavy. It took another few seconds before Sivugat could speak at all again, and his voice carried an empty, measured quality.

I was hurt, and desperate. A woman came to me and offered me a place to recover. The same tale over and over, for Sivugat. First it had been Kukutux the witch - then Nyra the betrayer. Thinking of either of them made the boy's shoulders tense further and the fur of his nape to bristle.

Nyra gave me training as I recovered. To use him in her war, or so Sivugat was made to understand, as he was a tool to be used by whoever could take and wield him. Then she lost the nerve, and ran. The boy was grimacing now, fighting the urge to flash his teeth at the memory of the weakness he had seen.

Looking up now, properly, upon Aventus' face - the scowl did not vanish so much as set in place there, as if cut of stone. I know where she went. Is that why you came?

Is this why Nyra ran?