Hi everyone,
Special Warning for this chapter :
Violence and torture scene that some may find disturbing
Again, if you have any comment, do not hesitate to submit it, I'll be glad to hear about your opinion :) and thanks to all those who got there :)
18- Valley of The Lost Souls
The motorbike drove its way through the still cool night air. Everything was quiet by this early time of the day, the roads were empty of any kind of life. They rode without stopping and without ever turning around. They soon left Iznik, its lake and its green and wooded region for the much more spacious and vast spaces of the country's central region.
As a precaution, they avoided Ankara and its periphery, before heading straight for Aksaray and Central Anatolia. There they made a short stopover in a tiny village at the entrance to Cappadocia, where they picked up some supplies and gas. However, they resumed their journey just as quickly as they had arrived.
The last few miles seemed endless. They drove for a long time on the sandy tracks before finally seeing the first fairy chimneys appear. Their chiselled, almost threatening silhouettes stood out like teeth in the desert landscape. The first rays of dawn gave it an apocalyptic and hostile appearance and for a moment, the two adventurers thought they had fallen into a parallel world, somewhere between reality and dream. Or perhaps at the gates of Hell.
The sun was now rising, spreading an orange light around them. After a few minutes, far ahead of them, the town of Goreme finally appeared. There too, they discovered a small town lost among the rocky peaks, wedged between the mountain and the plain. Its small troglodyte houses made of white stone, scattered all over the hills, gave the impression of a big beehive. After a last turn, Kurtis slowed down the pace. They made a quick stop in the centre of the village, asking a few early morning inhabitants for the direction to go.
They set off again. The motorbike went down the main road before entering a very small and sinuous road, which went far deep into the arid land. They rode a few more kilometres in the middle of the plain. Big gusts of hot wind whipped them hard several times, blurring their view with the red sand. After a while, they finally reached Çavusin, which was emerging at the foot of a new mountain range.
Kurtis slowed down again. He took a wide turn and stopped in the middle of what looked like a small square. The engine stopped, and silence fell around them. Lara got out the vehicle immediately, she felt numb from holding their things tightly against her for so long. She took a quick look around: Çavusin was a very small village, not to say tiny, with only a few abandoned houses. Above them, the old facade of what looked like an ancient fortress was carved into the rocky mountains. There were also some old troglodyte buildings with elegant decorated vaults. A little further on, the aventuress noticed the still standing bell tower of an old church.
Out of curiosity, she approached the nearest building in ruins. When she pushed open the wooden door, she felt like being in a western film: she discovered a room full of sand and earth, whose large counter and overturned tables made her understand it had been once a kind of old bar, perhaps even a hotel.
"Did you find anything?"
Kurtis was approaching. The young woman watched him wrapped his wounded arm, hurt by both the enemies' bullet and the knife from the night before. She gave him a dubious look. They hadn't been able to talk much during the journey, but she had no trouble feeling the young man's anxiety. They hadn't heard from Roman or Marie since the day before. The young man intercepted her pensive gaze. She shook her head distractedly, getting back to the question he had asked.
"Nothing, I-"
A piece of wall just next to her suddenly exploded into pieces with a hissing sound. The young man grabbed her and dragged her inside to take cover. They took out their weapons and positioned themselves behind the door and at the corner of a window to take a look outside. They exchanged a quick glance.
I cover you
Kurtis closed his eyes for a moment, before taking a few deep breaths. His face relaxed and he began to whisper his Latin incantations. Leaving the young man working on his foresee, Lara glanced outside again, but still saw no sign of life. A new bullet came crashing into the wall, not far from her. Kurtis gradually came back to him.
The opposite building. Top floor, window on the far right
The young woman leaned towards again to take a look outside: she could easily make out the building in question.
There is another one in the abandoned shed, a little further to the right
The adventuress took another look outside, but she couldn't see the building Kurtis was referring to, it wasn't in her angle of view.
Ok. I'll take care of the one across the street
The Lux Veritatis barely had time to nod, when the young woman was already stepping out and started running. Kurtis followed her in her footsteps. She saw the mercenary go off to her right, towards a tiny wooden building in ruins. Lara concentrated on the house in front of her and ran straight ahead of it, 9mm out. The enemies started firing at them again. The earth exploded under her feet several times. A bullet grazed her shoulder. She fired in the direction of the window Kurtis had indicated. She heard a groan of pain, and the shots stopped for a moment. At the other side of the square, the mercenary slalomed as best he could, dodging the bullets coming at him from all sides. He made a first stop behind his motorbike to protect himself. Pieces of metal flew into the air when the bullets hit the machine. The mercenary heard a bullet pierce the tank with a thud.
Bastards
The shots stopped. Kurtis took advantage of this slight break to stand up and run. After taking refuge one last time behind a section of wall, he finally reached the wooden shed and ran into it. The henchman who was there, had no time to react. He didn't manage to reload his assault rifle. Kurtis was already on him. The mercenary gave him a violent kick in the face that made the man fall backwards. In a last effort, the soldier tried to get back up on his feet and to strike back with his gun, but Kurtis' chirugai was faster. The weapon whistled through the air and fell on the assailant's hand in a sinister noise. The man escaped a cry of pain when his hand got chopped off from the rest of his arm and fell to the ground. Before the mercenary could finish him off, the man, out of himself, jumped to his feet and rushed at the American. He grabbed him by the waist and dragged him against the opposite wall. The two men hit the stone in a cloud of dust, Kurtis felt breathless for a short moment. From the corner of the eye he saw the soldier take a blade out. Before he could knock him down, Kurtis kicked him hard with the knee first, and then with the elbow. The man collapsed at his feet. Before he could get up, the Lux Veritatis kicked him again and the man finally fell to the ground. Kurtis then took out his Boran X and shot the enemy in the skull, which spilled on the ground in a pool of blood.
Panting, Kurtis turned around and turned back towards the adventuress, who had remained under cover at the foot of the other building. He saw her come out of her hiding place and bend over to fire towards the window. The soldier, visibly wounded, bent down through the window and fired in her direction. The young woman stepped aside to avoid another burst of bullets. The mercenary ran to join her. He stopped a few metres behind another small building so as not to get into the gunman's sight. On the side where she had taken refuge, the building was completely in ruins and formed a pile of stones and rubble.
Climb up
Lara gave him an questionning look. Then she turned to the pile of stones next to her. Seeing the shooter leaning out of the window again, Kurtis aimed at him and fired. When the bullets' echo fell back, the two adventurers exchanged glances again. Lara seemed to finally understand what was going on in the American's mind.
She suddenly started running, climbing the first few metres of the stones heap in long strides. Kurtis concentrated and held out a hand in front of him. The young woman got suddenly propelled into the air and landed somewhere onto the house top floor. She disappeared into the building. The mercenary heard a series of shots and grunts, and then silence. Lara escaped a scream. The mercenary rushed out of his hiding place to reach the house. He stopped at the foot of the rubble, where the young woman had been standing a few moments earlier. He raised his head, but saw nothing. Silence had fallen again. No more noise. His breathing quickened.
Lara?
The adventuress suddenly appeared on the edge of the void above him. Her chest was lifting in the frantic rhythm of her fast and strong breathing. Part of her shirt was now torn. She had traces of blood on her arms and on her trousers, but it didn't look like her own. She pulled a lock of hair out from in front of her eyes.
"Were you worried about me?"
She intercepted the smirk the mercenary threw at her. Then her face changed expression abruptly.
"Watch out!", she yelled.
She pulled out her weapons and fired almost instantly. Kurtis had just enough time to take refuge in the building entrance. Three other men had just appeared at the other side of the small square. They were advancing at a leisurely pace, as if they had just come back from a break. They hadn't noticed the two adventurers. Taken by surprise, they barely had time to react. The bullets fired by Lara hit the first one in the chest and somewhere in the head. He fell to the ground, followed by the second, who collapsed in the sand in a cry of pain. The third tried to escape. They saw him running at full speed, trying to get away from the village. Kurtis' chirugai suddenly unhooked from his belt and ran straight at the running man. With a loud whistle, the metal disc cracked the air and embedded itself in the back of the soldier's skull, who fell heavily to the ground.
The two adventurers waited a few seconds more before coming out of their respective hiding place. Lara ran down the pile of stones to join Kurtis. They advanced slowly, their weapons still pointed at the two nearest enemies on the ground. The American recalled his weapon, which got out of his victim's skull not without spilling some flesh and blood in the air before getting back to his master. When Lara and Kurtis arrived a few metres from the bodies, the second man suddenly began to move slightly. He growled. With a movement of the hand, Kurtis stopped Lara who was about to shoot him.
"Wait..."
She lowered her gun, frowning. The mercenary then took the lead, advancing carefully towards the man.
The wounded man rolled to one side. He escaped a new groan of pain. His breathing was wheezing, almost disturbing. He tried to stand up, then felt the two adventurers approaching, and began to crawl. The blood spreading from his wounds left large brownish marks into the sand. He saw the shadow of Kurtis pass over him. The American blocked him on the ground, pressing his boot against his back. The soldier let out another grunt. His fingers scratched the ground desperately as he tried to grab a large stone that was dragging a little further away. His fingers didn't have time to close on it as part of his hand suddenly disappeared in a splash of blood.
Over his shoulder Kurtis glanced at Lara, who had just shot. The man began to scream in pain. He cowered over himself, pressing against him the scraps of skin and bone that were now left of his hand. The Lux Veritatis gave him a strong kick to push him back. The soldier's eyes full of hatred met Kurtis' icy gaze, who pointed his weapon at the man's face. The mercenary seemed suddenly surprised.
"Well, well, well, well... Look at this."
Lara joined him, intrigued. The soldier on the ground continued to breathe loudly, desperately trying to contain the blood spilling from his mutilated hand.
"I think we know each other, don't we?", Kurtis told him.
Despite the traces of blood and dust on his face, the young woman did indeed recognise the guard who had held her down when Gunderson had stuck her against the cell floor.
"That dear Moskin," Lara said, her lips tightly pursed.
"You fucking slut!"
A new cry of pain pierced the air as the bullet Lara had just fired went through the soldier's knee. An unpleasant cracking sound told them the joint had just exploded inside the leg. Now a bloody gaping hole replaced what had once been the kneecap. Another pool of blood began to spill beneath the young man.
"Nobody taught you how to behave with a lady?", the mercenary told him ironically.
The guard was suffocating. He was writhing in pain on the ground. Kurtis came a little closer and put his foot against the Russian's throat. He pointed his BoranX at his face again.
"Where are they?"
The soldier laughed, before coughing violently. When he finally calmed down, he remained silent, staring at the two adventurers without moving his hateful eyes away. In front of his persistent silence, Kurtis raised his shoulders. He took a quick look at the adventuress behind him, who nodded in an almost imperceptible movement of the head.
"Alright. Let's see what we can get."
With these words, the mercenary and the adventuress each grabbed Moskin by one arm and dragged him into one of the abandoned buildings.
—
She went out for a moment to get some fresh air. The sun was blazing at this time of the day, and the heat was stifling in the small abandoned house.
She felt a movement beside her.
"I'm sorry, I'd imagined something less creepy for our first date."
She smiled in a mischevious way at Kurtis.
"We'll catch up some other time," she replied softly.
Kurtis gave her a wink, and quickly wiped the blade he had just used on one side of his trousers. Lara handed him a gourd so he could drink some water. The mercenary wiped away the drops of sweat from under his locks of hair with the back of his hand.
Kurtis then took a deep breath, and turned around to get back inside the small house. He walked quietly back to the back of the room, where they had tied Moskin to a chair.
The young man was slumped on the piece of furniture's back, his head leaning slightly forward. The muscles of his arms, which were locked backwards, were protruding as he tried to force himself free. His injured leg was at a strange angle, as if it had been cut in half. The knee was now only holding on to a few ligaments and remnants of muscles. A long trickle of drool hung from his mouth, and sweat mingled with dust on his forehead. One of his lips had not resisted the mercenary's fists and had cracked.
Kurtis approached with a slow step, playing with the knife he was holding in his hand. He stopped in front of the prisoner.
"You're pissing me off..."
The Russian didn't move. He breathed with difficulty. He tried to move the arm the American had cut deeply and which was burning in pain. His head rolled slightly to one side and he spat at the mercenary's feet.
Kurtis observed with a distracted eye the loogie at his feet. Then he took another step forward and crouched down in front of the Russian.
"We've wasted enough time," Lara said, annoyed.
The prisoner suddenly started to laugh. His head rolled backwards.
"Is the adventurous slut worried now?"
Kurtis punched him hard in the chin. The knock went so fast and was so strong that the Russian almost fell backwards with the chair. The mercenary grabbed him forcefully by the pants to hold him back. He then placed the tip of his knife on the man's jugular vein.
"Enough of your bullshits Moskin, for the last time, where are they? Where's the Nephilim going?"
The knife began to sink into the flesh. They saw him clench his jaws a little more.
"Haven't you understand that I won't tell nothing, you fucking bastard?", the Russian articulated between his clenched teeth.
Kurtis stared at him for a few seconds. Then he suddenly stopped his gesture, and moved the blade away from Moskin's throat. The American's gaze turned to something else. He played with the knife and slowly lowered it towards the lower part of the man's body. The prisoner observed the mercenary pointing at his crotch. He felt a pressure through the fabric of his trousers. Kurtis gave him an unhealthy look. The prisoner laughed ironically.
"Oh, let me guess, now you want revenge because we wanted to have some fun with your stupid female?"
The Russian's gaze then turned to the adventuress who was standing some feet away with her arms crossed. He didn't blink.
"I'm sure you're really willing to share..."
Kurtis pushed the weapon ahead with a precise movement. The metal passed through the canvas of the trousers without resistance, before impaling itself in one of the Russian's testicles. The young man's scream tore the air around them. He shook frantically in all directions, desperately trying to free himself from the blade. He tried to hit the mercenary with his still valid leg.
The American, after pushing the weapon a little further into the flesh, finally pulled it out with a sharp blow. Stunned, the prisoner collapsed back on his chair, his head leaning on one side. A new pool of blood, mixed up with urine formed beneath him and dripped onto the floor. Kurtis stood up.
"Enough."
Lara, overwhelmed, stepped forward. She grabbed Kurtis by the arm.
"We've wasted enough time here," she told him in a whisper. "We should leave him here and go."
The Lux Veritatis shook his head.
"He may know things that will help us, Lara."
"I think he does, indeed. But I don't think he will talk anyway. He's just trying to buy some time. We have to keep moving. We leave him here and we just go and check the rest of the village. Alessio's archeological teams are somewhere around here. If we find them, I think we'll find some clues about the direction to follow. They must have seen Karel and the others coming here."
They heard the Russian moving on his chair. He sneered in an excessive way, before starting coughing loudly again. The sound of his broken voice raised in a whisper.
"Don't worry, they will be waiting for you at the end of the canyon to shot your sweet little faces..."
Time seemed to stop in the small abandoned house. The two adventurers froze. They watched the young man leaning against his chair, who suddenly seemed to decompose on the spot, as he realised what he had just said.
For a short second, Lara stayed still, just looking at the young soldier. Then suddenly she moved towards him. With a gesture as quick as abrupt, she grabbed the knife from Kurtis' hands. She quickly got to the prisoner and, without the slightest hesitation, stabbed him directly in the abdomen. He was taken by a violent start. The adventuress watched him impassively, but she could read all the contempt he felt for her in his crazy eyes. She pressed a little harder and the blade disappeared almost completely into the man's flesh. He was breathing fast, suffocating. She saw him clenching his teeth, no doubt to hold back a scream.
Lara then tightened her fingers a little more around the weapon, and slowly brought it up into the Russian's belly, slowly cutting off the skin and flesh, until the blade hit the sternum bone. A mixture of blood and other transparent and white liquids began to flow from the wound. A disgusting smell spread throughout the room. A severed piece of intestine slid out. The man started coughing, and a trickle of blood appeared at the corner of his lips.
"Thank you", she told him in a voice Kurtis could never have imagined so terryfingly cold.
With a broad and sudden movement she took the blade out from the prisoner's abdomen, whose head went backwards with the shock. He let out disturbing glutural groan. In the coldest calm, the young woman just raised her head proudly. She felt the weapon slip into her hand full of blood. After one last look at the dying Russian, she turned round. She threw the knife away to get rid of it. Kurtis watched her pass him by and finally leave the house without another word.
—
She quickly rinsed her hands before going to retrieve the few belongings and weapons that had remained near the motorbike.
"Remind me not to bother you when you've got a knife in your hands."
Kurtis had just joined her. She gave him a faint smile. A pool of petrol lay at their feet. She saw the mercenary leaning towards his vehicle and heard him grumbling.
"Bastards..."
She closed her bag after having slipped the bare minimum of stuff in it and passed it over her shoulder. The adventuress' gaze then turned to the opposite side. A little further on, perhaps a hundred metres after the village, she looked again at the mountain facing them. They were surrounded only by plains and the rock suddenly rose up in front of them, just like an iceberg tip. The two adventurers exchanged glances.
"Still no news from them?"
The young man did not answer her. She saw a shadow passing through his eyes. He then gathered a few things together before getting up again. A strong gust of wind blew them away, whistling against the empty houses around them. A cloud of sand blurred their vision for a short moment. Far to the south, big clouds were slowly rising in their direction. They walked away silently.
They reached Çavusin mountain range more quickly than they thought. As Moskin had hinted, the mountain split in two a little further ahead of them, as if torn by a lightning. From where they were, they saw a multitude of small houses carved into the rock. Turrets and slightly larger buildings seemed to extend quite high on the rock. In several places she noticed the remains of ancient murals, whose once vivid colours had been tarnished by the sun. She recognized here the art of the Christians who had fled the Roman Empire, she knew the whole area had been the refuge of many peoples. For a moment, Lara had the impression she was standing in front a kind of fortress, she would not have been surprised to see ghosts of soldiers from the past coming out of the darkest corners. At the end of the cliff were settled about ten white canvas tents. The wind whipped them violently, making their fastenings ondulate dangerously.
The archeologists
However, the place seemed strangely quiet. Lara and Kurtis exchanged suspicious glances. The mercenary squinted his eyes to see through another gust of sand coming at them. He distinguished something on the ground in front of the first tent. Without having to consult each other, they began to run at the same pace. They reached the camp within a minute. There their fears were confirmed: it was a man's body. They drew their weapons.
"It's quite recent," the young man stated, taking a quick look at the body which had been shot down by a bullet in the back.
They silently went around the first tent. Kurtis checked they were not being followed before finding Lara on the other side. They were speechless at what they discovered there: the camp, consisting of a few tents and some archeological installations, was upside down. All the search equipment had been scattered all over the place, and a dozen bodies of men and women laid on the ground wherever they looked. The researchers had obviously been caught by surprised and had tried to flee from their assailants. Large traces of blood covered the fabric of some of the tents and the sand. Leaves and documents were floating around the place, blown by the wind. Several bodies bore the marks of blows and bullet holes in several places.
"D'you think they had discovered something?", Kurtis murmured.
Lara shook her head.
"I don't think so…"
She looked up at the rocks and the troglodyte houses above them.
"...I think they were just standing in their way."
She looked away. Without wasting any time, the two adventurers took a quick tour of the camp. Lara checked out several tents, but found nothing except some maps of the region. She took one, just in case. Kurtis found some documents that related some discoveries the team had made around here, but nothing regarding a potential Nephilim sanctuary. They found each other again a few moments later, both of them as empty-handed as each other.
Guns in hand, Lara moved towards the back of the camp, suspiciously observing the shadows around them. She stepped over the body of a woman curled up on herself. The adventuress couldn't take her eyes off the canyon that opened up in front of them. She felt irremediably attracted by this immense fissure that was opening up to them, and which seemed to sink into the blackest depths of the earth. The red rock undulated in an elegant movement, shaped by thousands of years of storms, seasons and erosion. The young woman wondered for a moment how such a beautiful place could have been home to the most destructive race of monsters on the planet.
A warm breeze rushed into the canyon in a weird whistle. It almost have sounded like human rales. Lara couldn't hold back a shiver. She felt the reassuring presence of Kurtis coming back to her side.
"Here we go," she whispered.
Her gaze crossed that of the young man. His chirugai was silently floating behind his master, alert.
"We can't wait for them," he said in a whisper.
Lara shook her head softly. She didn't need to answer him out loud. She wished they didn't have to make this decision. She wished they had known Kurtis's mother and Roman were alive, and above all safe and sound. She knew that from the moment they would enter the canyon they might never get the answer.
Kurtis lowered his gaze and with a determined step, made his way to the canyon. The metal disc followed him with a slight hissing sound. After a last glance behind her, Lara followed him.
—
A FEW HOURS EARLIER
The mercenary walked back towards his master, gun still in hand. The Nephilim and the archivist were standing some meters away from the camp, both concentrated on the scrolls they had in hands.
"We have cleared the area, Master. We can now start moving into the canyon."
Karel didn't bother to look up at him.
"Perfect. We've got a long way to go, make sure everything is ready. Gather your men and let's start moving. The prisoners go first."
The henchman nodded.
"I'll leave a few men in Çavusin. They will serve as a forward post."
The Nephilim's gaze finally raised up from the manuscripts.
"I hope for you that we won't have any unpleasant surprises," Karel replied coldly.
Gunderson stared at him without blinking. Karel then resumed his conversation with the archivist. They didn't bother turn their heads when the terrible scream of a woman echoed behind them. Without a word, the mercenary turned and limped back to his men to give his orders. With a snap of his fingers he told them to regroup. He exchanged a few words with five of them, who immediately left on foot to go back to Cavusin and take their guard.
Gunderson then returned to the small group of about ten people they had taken prisoner. Seven women and three men were held on their knees and hands behind their heads by a few soldiers pointing their rifles at them. One of them violently hit a very young woman who could not stop crying.
Gunderson nodded his head and told his men to get them up. The group started moving and one by one they entered the canyon. Some meters away, the last soldiers in the camp started coming towards the canyon too. On their way, a man begged for mercy before being savagely shot by one of the men. Another young woman laid on the ground a little further away. She desperately tried to crawl to get to a safe place, but her badly injured leg was slowing her down.
The mercenary's gaze stopped on Morgau, who had been standing in a corner all this time, watching the soldiers going and coming around in the camp. Gunderson snapped his fingers to make her look in his direction. At first silent, her icy eyes just stayed fixed onto him. He watched carefully her empty shell, as if her mind was not really there.
"Time to move, Vasiley. Finish her off," Gunderson ordered coldly.
The girl looked at him without understanding. There was a moment of hesitation during which she held her colleague's gaze. She didn't move.
"Haven't you heard what I've just told you?"
"I'm not your fucking dogsbody, Gunderson," she retorted angrily.
The mercenary escaped a cynical laugh. He approached the young woman slowly.
"And tell me, since when have you been in such a state of mind?"
Morgau raised her chin in defiance. The mercenary grabbed her violently by the side. His fingers closed painfully on a part of her metal corset which plunged directly into her pale skin. She groaned, trying to get over the piercing pain that came right through her abdomen. She felt her blood running at high speed in her veins.
"Be careful, Vasiley..."
"About what exactly?"
The man's face suddenly changed expression. In a precise movement, the young girl grabbed her spear and, as she made it twist between her hands, deeply wounded the hand that was holding her. The mercenary stepped back in a grunt.
Then, stepping ahead again, he violently threw his fist into the girl's face. Some soldiers passing by watched her fell heavily on the ground. The blood she spat mingled with the sand. Then, she slowly got up and stood before Gunderson, her spear still in hands, ready to strike him again. Their eyes met. A flame of the deepest anger was burning inside her. She just laughed at him.
"Do you really think you can make me suffer, you fucking son of a bitch?"
"You're right, laugh while you can. I guess it won't be that funny when the Nephili will have turned you into an incubator too."
The young girl frowned. She laughed nervously.
"That's all you've found to destabilise me?"
A slight ironic smile appeared on Gunderson's face.
"They won't even need you to be totally human, nor totally alive."
Morgau looked at him, puzzled. As if her mind was trying to digest the information, she lowered her head towards her abdomen to take a look at the metal corset, then at the weapon she held. Then she rose up her head again.
"I'm a warrior, a sentinel," she replied dryly. "I ain't no fucking kind of Nephili fuck bag... the Master wouldn't allow that..."
Gunderson laughed. She swallowed with difficulty, trying not to show how she felt. The mercenary suddenly stepped towards her and grabbed the spear from her hands. He returned to the frightened young archaeologist, who, in tears, looked up at him imploringly. She escaped a final cry of despair when Gunderson stood over her and impaled her with the weapon. The woman was caught in a final nervous outburst before collapsing on the sand. Her now empty eyes were pointed in the direction of the young girl.
"Stay there if you want. Nobody cares about your miserable life," the mercenary spat to her.
Gunderson then threw Morgau's weapon away, and turned away without a word. She looked down at her spear, and at the dead woman. Then her eyes got caught by the Nephilim and the archivist who had just moved to the canyon. Her corset was causing her agony. Blood was pulsing violently in her temples. She felt anger coming back inside her, rising like an uncontrollable wave. She clenched her fists until her joints turned pale.
You know things could have been different, Morgau
