I wanted to know all the reasoning, but I knew better than to ask any of the questions. It wouldn’t do me any good. I tried my magic again, but it still wasn’t working. Even if I managed to get free, I didn’t know that I’d be able to do anything about it. I couldn’t run, I didn’t have any weapons, not that I could wield them anyway, and my magic was unreliable at best for the time being.
We finally made it to the top of the stairs. The door to the outside was left open. It was bright enough to burn my eyes. I blinked rapidly, trying to alleviate the stars even as more formed. The light in the cell was always on, and it was always just bright enough to see across the room, but not more than that.
As he pulled me out the door, I took a deep breath. The smells of the forest filled my nose. The birdsong as they got ready to settle in for the night was beautiful enough tears sprang to my eyes. I could hear everything at the same time. The chorus of critters in the undergrowth and up the trees. I didn’t want to go back to silence. I didn’t know that I could handle it again.
I hadn’t realized how much I missed the sounds and smells until now. Not having them for what felt like weeks had been a particularly cruel form of torture.
(All excerpts are taken from a lightly edited first draft. The content might change or be removed entirely from the final book.)
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