The sounds of her cries would forever be embedded into my mind. I remember hearing her screaming at someone, at low tones threatening her and then just the sound of death on display. It wasn't so far from where I had lodged myself in a boulder and I waited with baited breath for a long time, as still as the rabbits that were often hunted on the plains of Ruieze. My breaths are shallow and my lungs ache from lack of oxygen. Finally I think they are gone. Has it been an hour - two? I don't know, I just shake like a leaf as I back out of my spot and glance about with wild eyes, the whites flashing. I don't see them but I am not familiar with this place. The scent of the air is thick with salt and I dart down the prey path away from where I knew Zuelika had been. I don't want to see.. I can't see... no, I won't think about it.

But my mind won't stop even as I tell it to. Even as I whimper and crouch low to the ground and crawl my way further into Glorall. I am sure that is where I am because my fortune is not as good as to end up somewhere safe. I suppose if my father did tell Zuelika to bring me here then I had no choice. His very name in my mind is a strong enough collar to make me obedient. I cry out suddenly, my fear overwhelming me, and it comes out in a series of desperate yaps and barks that cut off swiftly as I dart further inland and come quite suddenly to the line of grass that begins to blur into sand.

I am struck by the view of the ocean roiling, my small figure pressed low into the ground with ears back but eyes unable to break away. This is the end of the world, I think. It will swallow me whole and no one will remember me. I thik of Vasily - she had said she would find my brother. She seemed kind in a mean sort of way but even that was torn from me. A tear leaks its way down my cheek as I shake and whimper, awaiting my execution. After all, that is the only thing I would be useful for in the eyes of my father.