Aesa's throat tightened as she tried to steady her breath, but the memory gripped her like a hand around her lungs. She wasn't done talking.
"There was… more," she whispered.
The frost around her boots spread thinly across the stone. Her eyes drifted somewhere far away, back to when that kingdom drowned in silence.
"When the Gravebringer took the city, it didn't take long. It was just days, maybe less I don't remember."
Her fingers trembled. "I watched my people and families I knew, children I taught, soldiers who swore their lives to protect the land, twisted into undead monsters."
She swallowed hard and her voice cracked.
"And my husband… he was one of the last to turn."
The chamber tensed. Even the roots seemed to still, as if they also listened.
"He and his troops fought it," she continued. "He held the gates, kept refugees behind him, bought time even when he knew he wouldn't survive. He told me to run and escape."
Her lips shook.
