Foggy Bottom Way ratero

She should have been resting. She should not have left the valley again.

Yet Andromache was overcome with the desire to see the place of her fall once again. She could not seem to erase that day from her mind, though she tried to turn her thoughts only toward healing, toward the building of an empire. So she departed; alone, in silence, expecting nothing but the whispering sounds of the desert to greet her.

What she found instead was a woman. Andromache recognized the unnatural way she had fallen almost immediately; something was wrong, but what? She swept closer with a quickness that made her wince, injuries still not fully healed, and caught the faint scent of blood. It did not yet occur to her that the woman had been bitten, as she had. She stepped closer, sniffing around her to locate the source of the blood scent.