Aizere sat with her knees drawn up to her chest, her face hidden in them. Her wrists and ankles still burned from the ropes that had restrained her during the long, awful night. Tears soaked into her trousers even as she tried to will them away.
And Wyll just sat there, patiently, not forcing her to explain herself or pushing her to speak at all. Just waiting. It was almost unbearable, the sheer goodness of him as she sat there angry and hurt and scared. When she finally did speak, it was in a hoarse whisper that he had to lean closer to hear.
“I don’t have any memories,” she said quietly. “I thought it was the tadpole, you know…” She lifted her head enough to wipe away tears. “Doing tadpole things. But every time I do remember something, it’s…death.” She pressed her face tighter against her knees. “Blood on my hands and the smell of viscera and this awful little thing telling me to kill more and more - “
She shuddered, her quiet tears threatening to become outright sobs, and she felt warmth at her side as Wyll just sat next to her. Didn’t touch her, didn’t speak. Just let her know, without words, that he was there.
“What if that’s all I am?”
“It’s not.” Wyll’s voice was quiet, but firm, and Aizere startled a bit to hear it after his silence.
“You don’t know that. You can’t know that, because I don’t know that - “
“Aizere.” She looked up to find him staring at her, much nearer than she had expected. “It’s not. You’re not. I know that, because I know you.” He reached up to brush her hair away from her face where it had escaped her braid during her thrashing. “Maybe not the ‘you’ you were before, but I know the ‘you’ you are now.” A smile touched his face. “And I rather like the ‘you’ you are now. So you can’t be all that bad.”
Tears welled in her eyes again as emotion she hadn’t allowed herself to feel threatened to overwhelm her. It had been too much, too confusing, and she had shoved it away in favor of dealing with the problem at hand. But her defenses were down, every bit of her exhausted, and she simply let herself lean over into Wyll’s side. He gave a small noise of surprise as her weight settled against him, but after a moment his arm rested around her shoulders and he just held her, not saying another word, as they both waited for the sun to rise.