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‘I’ you to listen,’ the shict whispered, ‘so that I don’t find out what happens next’

Uncertain as to whether that was a threat or not, Asper settled back into her seat and tried to ignore the feeling of the shict’s tension

‘The thing is, we’re not even supposed to talk to hue so we can knohat you’re plotting next Originally, I thought that being aood way to find that out’ She sighed ‘Of course, within a week, it beca going on in their head’

Asper nodded; an insult to her entire race was slightly more tolerable than an insult to her person, at least

‘I should have run, then,’ Kataria said ‘I should be running now … Why a for another blow – ‘just Lenk that’s keeping you here?’

‘I protected hi its way out of herinto one of his fits, so I stepped forward and did the talking I protected a human’

‘You’ve done that before, haven’t you?’

‘I’ve killed soht have killed a human before, but I never did … whatever it was I did,’ Kataria said ‘He just needed help and I …’

‘Uh-huh,’ Asper said after the shict’s voice had trailed off ‘And you did it because of his … fits did you call them?’

‘Have you noticed the in a deep breath She wondered if Kataria could feel her tension growing, if she could feel the chill racking her body

Fits, she thought to herself I have noticed no fits I have noticed what Denaos whispers, how he accuses Lenk of going mad, slowly I have noticed the emptiness of Lenk’s eyes, the death in his voice, the words he spoke

‘Telltheir way to her lips of their own accord ‘Do you listen to your instincts?’

‘Of course’

‘Even when they tell you so you don’t want to hear?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Let’s talk about Lenk for a ht,’ Kataria replied hesitantly

‘We don’t knohere he cae no one’s heard of, we don’t knoho his parents are, what his lineage is or even where he got his sword’

‘That’s not fair,’ Kataria protested ‘Even he doesn’t know that’

‘And does he knoho taught hiht?’

‘What?’

‘I learned froht by his master, even Denaos likely learned all that he knows froht you to fire a bow? To track?’

Kataria’s body tensed up again, the kind of nervous tension that Asper had felt many times before Uncertainty, doubt, fear It ached h theht be

‘My mother,’ Kataria said ‘But what--?’

‘Have you ever known,’ Asper spoke silently, ‘anyone who fights, who kills as naturally as Lenk does?’ At Kataria’s silence, she pressed her back against her ‘Have you seen him after he kills?’

Her question was not delivered with the cold, calculating tone she thought would be befitting It was choked, quavering, but she could hardly help it The realisations were only co to her noith swift and sudden horror But perhaps that wasn’t so bad, she reasoned; perhaps Kataria would be coht, so to help her

And she would help the shict, she resolved Helping people, regardless of what kind of people they were That hy she had taken her oaths

‘I … I have,’ Kataria replied with such hesitation that Asper knew the saes filled her head

‘I’ve seen everyone kill,’ Asper whispered ‘I forced myself to, to knoas done, if … if I ever had to Denaos boasts, you exult, Dreadaeleon pauses to breathe, even Gariath took the ti, he doesn’t react, but he looks … he looks …’ The dread caue ‘Satisfied Whole’

She could feel Kataria trehtened herself as hten her cohtened, she reasoned, both of them needed to be scared in the face of this new realisation that, in the absence of any dereatest threat

‘Who looks like that?’ she asked ‘What would make aelse? Whatever plagued him, whatever threatened him, threatened theo liainst her back, she knew her friend knew it as well

‘Your instincts were confused,’ Asper said softly ‘You wanted to run, as would anyone, but you want to help and only a few can say they would want that’

But in this knowledge, Asper found peace, as de body, she found the urge to rise up In her friend’s suffering, she found a strength that allowed her to reach down and take Kataria’s hand in her own, a strength that would carry her to the peace the priestess felt, a strength that would carry Lenk

This was her purpose, her duty

‘And ill help hiods or instinct that make us do it’

‘Then what is it?’ Kataria asked, her voice weak

‘You,’ Asper said gently ‘You will do it, because you’re in love’

This was the moment she lived for, thelately The face of a child told they would walk again, the exasperated gasp of a moments-old mother told their infant was healthy, the soles said over her husband’s grave

And now, she thought, the e road to helping a friend recover

This was it

This was her purpose