One woman can only face so much horror before she begins to crumble. By now, Droullin is in pieces.
"The shadows are crawling. This place is alive with evil," she murmurs to herself as she crouches against the cold stone wall, head in her hands. It was the madman who now lies in bloody ribbons who awakened her to such gruesome truths. His words were twisted, unhinged, but they were not lies.
Droullin's versebook lies closed on the ground beside her. She does not dare look at it lest the Flame burn her for her doubt, but still she prays with the last of her hope, "Light, grant me passage through these cursed halls. Deliver me, oh holy Flame. Spare me, if—"
Strong hands land on either side of Droullin's face. She struggles, startled, until she registers familiar dark eyes boring into hers and everything seems to still.
"Breathe," Vitalis commands softly.
Droullin only now realizes that she's stopped. She grips Vitalis's wrists and forces her lungs to expand. They obey only shakily, haltingly, but she manages to draw a breath. It spreads within her like healing light. Or maybe that's just Vitalis's touch.
Either way, Droullin feels herself steady. The shrieks and laughs that had ricocheted around the dungeon and inside her skull begin to fade. The darkness that had pressed in on all sides begins to lift. Droullin's chest loosens from the knot it had twisted itself into. She exhales, and her fear floats away on the air.
Vitalis sits back on her heels, seeming mollified. Her hands fall away from Droullin's face. Then she pauses, looks down at them and back up, and frowns.
"Sorry," she says.
"What?"
Vitalis gestures guiltily to her face.
Droullin, confused, wipes her glove across her cheek and looks at it. It comes away bloody. "Oh," she says, feeling an unlikely laugh bubble up in her throat.
Vitalis blinks at the sound. "Are you all right?" she asks, as if Droullin has now gone crazy rather than fearful.
The vestal lets her laugh subside into the ghost of a smile. "Yes," she assures, "thanks to you."
Vitalis studies her expression like she's seeing her for the first time, or maybe like she is trying to identify a lie. She must not find one, because in the next moment, her lips curl just the slightest bit toward an answering smile.
…