Song For This Chapter: The Wolf Song by Jonna Jinton (Please try to listen to the song. It helped me connect to this chapter… to both of them.)
Avaren;
Darkness.
It is all I have known for years… For so long, it's been my companion.
At first I feared it, but now? Now it's become normal. Something I'm used to.
Something I no longer fear.
In the absence of sight, all other senses sharpen and bloom.
I can feel the soft hum of mana in the air… swirling gently around the silk curtains of my bedroom. I can hear Calisí's breathing as she's perched at the edge of my bed… slow, calm, familiar. I can smell the pages of the novel she's flipping through.
The constant flipping of the book's pages is soothing… Quite like her presence… She warms the room… and my life more than any lantern ever could.
I turn slightly toward her when I realise she hasn't flipped the page in a while. She's gone down a rabbit hole of thoughts.
"You've gone quiet," I note, and she exhales a short laugh.
