Healing: Saving the White Sorceress

Udonna's POV

I opened my eyes and buried my face in my pillow as tears streamed down my face. I bit into it, a desperate effort to muffle my shrieks—my shrieks of pain, of loss, of grief. I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling. A part of me wished I had not survived the Great War, but then who would care for my niece, for little orphaned Clare?

Oh, how I hated the Darkness. I hated them! I hated every servant of the Master with a burning hatred—so powerful it rivaled that of my late husband, my—I can't even think his name—it hurts too much. The Master and his army had taken everything from me—my whole family! My sister died sealing the Gates. He died behind the gates. My little boy—my baby Bowen—died when Daggeron was murdered by that treacherous Calindor. My brother-in-law—Mathias—murdered. The only one left in my broken family—is my niece, little three-year-old Clare.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to go back to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes, the images flashed across my mind—him telling Niella to stay back and seal the Gates with a spell, that it was the only way, Niella dying, and knowing, just knowing, that my husband died back there. Then Bowen being murdered—he was just an innocent baby! My brother-in-law's limp form in the backyard and hiding it from Clare. Daggeron dead—somewhere unknown. The tears fell faster now.

I curled up and then heard the now-familiar pitter-patter of footsteps—Clare needed me. I forced myself to be strong for her—to never let her see me cry. I swiftly cast a spell that removed all traces of my crying. "Udonna, will you tell me a story?" the three-year-old asked.

See, she believes that she was an orphan that I had taken in—unaware that technically, Niella had made me promise to protect and raise the little girl, and that she was really my niece.

I nodded and told a swift story about her mother, always leaving out that we were sisters, telling her instead that we had been best friends. Clare nodded and I sent her back to bed. I curled back up on my bed and tears streamed down my face once more. I miss you all so much, my family, I thought, forcing myself back to sleep, knowing another nightmare would soon awaken me.