Vaeron tried to stand, but ended up falling. She saw the way his face contorted in pain, and her pulse roared in her ears. He was in pain!
"H-Hasn't he proven enough?" The words tore from her before she could temper them, fear and guilt splintering her voice as she stared down at him. "Can't this be stopped?"
A sick heat coiled in her chest as she remembered, too vividly, the way the silver woman's touch had eased him, how relief had briefly softened his expression.
The image turned sharply on her now. He could have chosen release. He could have ended this. But she had watched him refuse it.
The thought would've created a sense of relief but the realization hollowed her even as fear swelled suffocatingly.
"I'm afraid not, Lady Anastasia," The woman responded after a short while, her gaze never straying from the arena below.
