Cadence Chapter Four: Revealed

Mako was rarely in a situation where he didn't know what to do. Even if he had no precise plan, he usually had some sort of an idea of what he should do.

Except now.

He watched Korra slumber quietly, wondering if he should rouse her; and then what? What would he do? What would he say?

For once in his life, Mako didn't have the faintest clue.

Korra stirred, muttering a little in her sleep, and Mako backed away automatically, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

Korra was Koda. Koda, the gutsy slave who spent most of the day mouthing off to him had been Korra all along.

His mind seemed to have a hard time grasping the concept. It was Korra who'd sniped at him and used sarcasm like a weapon. It was Korra who had taken a whip across her arm without a flinch. It was Korra who'd staggered back to his room after a beating that would have crippled many a hardened warrior.

And more importantly, it was Korra who had not given him the slightest hint at her identity. She hadn't revealed herself to him when they were alone, trusting him to help her. She hadn't tried to convince him to come back; in fact, if any of her escape attempts had been successful, she would have left Mako far behind her, without him ever having the slightest suspicion of whom she really was.

He refused to acknowledge the kernel of disappointment that sprouted within him at the thought.

And now that he knew who she was, what was he going to do? He knew that he should report her to Amon; the amount of information she could take back to Republic City was staggering. But he felt no need to. He knew Amon was corrupt; why should he make an effort to prevent the Equalist's inevitable downfall?

He knew he should tell Korra, but he found himself not wanting to do that, either. If she knew that he knew it would only complicate things. The way they were now was simple; she wanted to escape, so he'd let her escape. Then she'd go back to Republic City and he could go back to his training, and he could forget this had ever happened as he'd tried to forget his memories of Republic City and those he'd left behind. Simple, easy, required almost no effort on his part; yes, Mako liked that plan.

So that was what he'd do.

Mako turned away and walked to his bathroom, preparing for sleep, and trying not to concentrate on the fact that, when he had finally realised who those startlingly familiar turquoise eyes belonged to, his first instinct had been to sweep her into his arms and run, run out of Sound to deposit her at Republic City's doorstep.

"What's up with you?" Korra asked, shaking her head at Mako. "That's the third time I've caught you staring at me and we haven't even gone for breakfast yet."

"Nothing." Mako turned away, cursing himself. Now that he knew it was Korra in the room with him, it seemed ridiculous he'd ever missed it. It seemed that every time he turned around he was recognising another of Korra's mannerisms: the way she scowled, the way she crossed her arms, the way she glared...

Unfortunately, it meant he spent a lot of time staring at Korra, picking out those little details. He didn't even know why he was doing it, why it was giving him a sense of warmth every time he saw Korra's true identity peek through her Koda facade.

Turquoise eyes peered curiously at him, and Mako jerked his gaze away. While he could watch her, meeting those eyes had become uncomfortable for him ever since he'd learned who was behind them. He didn't know why looking into Korra's eyes unsettled him; it just did.

"So...breakfast?" Korra prompted, chalking Mako's weird behaviour up to the fact that he was Mako.

"Follow me," he instructed.

"Yes, sir!" Korra snapped, sarcasm heavy in her tone as she goose-stepped out of the room behind him.

Mako still found it a little bewildering that this was Korra who was standing up to him like this. Who was disparaging him like this.

"Well, are we going to get breakfast or are you just going to stand in the doorway like a particularly useless statue?"

Mako glared at her, but as always, his displeasure didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. He could remember a time when his displeasure with her would have made her sad, embarrassed but now, there was nothing. It was as though she didn't care anymore.

'Maybe she doesn't...' the thought whispered in the back of Mako's mind, the concept more unsettling than he would have wanted it to be.

He then told himself to stop thinking about it. To say nothing, to allow Korra to escape, and then everything could go back to the way it was before he had figured out who she was, dredging up memories of times better left forgotten.

So, with a slight snort, he set off down the corridor, Korra hurrying after him. He wound his way through the house, approaching a formal dining room the previous owner would have used for large-scale events such as village-wide councils or treaties between countries.

As he drew closer, he realised that they were not alone in this house.

Mako halted outside the door, rather puzzled. He knew enough about the Equalist faction to know that it was time for the slaves who worked in the house to be taking their breakfast, so why was the hall crammed with Equalists?

He had a sudden urge to turn around and tell Korra to go back to the room while he determined what was going on. Any break in the routine with the Equalists usually signaled danger of some kind.

"What is going on with you?" came an indignant voice from behind him. "Seriously, I want to know. You've been staring at me, staring into space, stopping in the middle of hallways for no reason; what's going on?"

Mako flashed another scowl at her before opening the door, stepping into a room filled with Equalist lackeys.

"Ah, Mako, glad you could join us," Amon lulled. "Tell me, how was your night? Do anything interesting?"

If there was one thing Mako had learned about Amon, it was that he did not make small talk. Everything he said had some purpose, some hidden meaning and when the eyes behind the mask slid past him to alight on Korra, Mako realised what it was.

'He knows!'

It should have surprised him, but he found it didn't. Not really. There were a countless number of ways Amon could have found out. Cameras hidden in the room, a roof-hopping Equalist glancing into the window last night at the wrong moment...

Korra went stiff as Amon's eyes sought her out. In that instant, she knew he was aware of her true identity. Call it a hunch; call it intuition, She just knew.

She stepped back automatically, some wild thought of just turning around and running for her life thumping through her brain, but someone caught her arm. She whirled around, just managing to see the Lieutenant behind her, one hand gripping her wrist, the other glowing blue with electric pulses and coming down on the back of her neck...

It was like being hooked up to a thousand volts of electricity for one split-second. The jolt coursed through her body, shocking, but too fast to be considered painful and when it left Korra found herself on her knees, hunched over the floor, her hair hanging in her eyes.

'Crap!' was all that ran through her head as she took in the curves of her breast and hip pressing against the material of her shift. It seemed her cover was well and truly blown.

'Crap!'

Slowly, she raised her head to look at Amon, her mind frantically racing to determine the best course of action but coming up blank. She didn't dare look at Mako; she needed to be clear-headed if she was going to get out of this and whatever expression was adorning his face now would only serve to muddy her thoughts.

"I think you have made a grave mistake, Avatar Korra," Amon said, his low chuckle making her stomach clench.

He glanced at the men around him. "Take her."

Well, at least that explained why there were so many Equalists. Korra was torn between being intimidated by their sheer numbers and flattered that Amon thought he needed this many men to take her down even though she was collared.

But then they were rushing towards her, and she had to react.

Korra lunged backwards, putting her back against the wall and ensuring no one could come at her from behind. With her bending made unreliable by the collar, she couldn't guarantee she would be able to win this fight.

With a snarl of defiance, Korra summoned small flames to her hands, working with her limited energy to form the fire daggers that Lord Zuko had once shown her.

"Anyone that touches me, I'll rip their throats out," she said, her voice low but perfectly clear, ringing with deadly intent.

A few of her more prudent attackers slowed their headlong rush, blind bloodlust beginning to give way to cold calculation, but some simply continued charging forward.

A pair of tall men reached her first, and it only took a moment to singe both their throats with her fire daggers. While an efficient weapon, they took some energy to maintain, and Korra knew that, with the collar on, she had to conserve as much energy as possible.

So she abandoned them in favour of yanking a long blade from one of her would-be attacker's sheaths as their bodies hit the floor. A single sweep of the sword at waist-height sliced the first row of enemies, save for one who was a little quicker than the others and dropped into a crouch, lunging forward at the level of her knees.

Korra leapt high into the air, her feet coming down on the back of his neck, snapping it cleanly with a rather nauseating crack.

Kicking the body into the mob and knocking several of them down, Korra had a moment to reflect on how truly desperate her situation was. With the collar on, she was finding it difficult to bring her superhuman strength into play. One good blow would probably end the battle.

Korra leaned back, her hands using the wall as a brace as she snapped her feet out, catching one Equalist in the sternum, sending him careening backwards to knock those behind him over like dominoes.

She ducked away from the wild swing of an electrified glove, bringing her weapon up diagonally across her attacker's chest.

She twisted away and down, letting a sword aimed for her neck slide over her and straight through another opponent. She gained her feet again, about to raise her blade to drive it into the owner of said sword when the man toppled over suddenly.

Mako was standing behind him, electricity sizzling through his kali sticks.

"She's mine!" he shouted, his hand closing over her wrist and yanking her towards him, her sword falling to the floor as his fingers dug into her tender nerves and forced her to release it.

"The hell I am!" Korra rebuffed, raising the arm he hadn't seized and slugging him brutally in the side.

She felt ribs crack beneath her blow, but then she felt a ruthless, sickeningly familiar, pinch at the side of her neck, and darkness rushed into her vision like a living thing.

When Korra regained consciousness, she was in Mako's room, lying on his bed with the amber eyed fire bender himself sitting next to her, staring down at her.

Korra tensed automatically. She'd been revealed, and while Mako had been almost nice to her in the past, that was when he hadn't known whom he was talking to. Now that he did, what was he going to do?

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said, interrupting her thoughts as though he could hear them. She blinked, staring at him in honest surprise. Uncomfortable with lying down while he sat upright, and the level of vulnerability that entailed, however slight, she sat up and slid away from him, only stopping when her back was pressed against the headboard.

So; what happened now? Considering their last encounter, some cynical part of Korra had honestly expected Mako to use his electrified kali sticks against her, leaving her singed. Despite being the Avatar Korra knew that with the collar on, she'd be lucky to last five seconds against him. Korra drew her knees up against her chest, unconsciously defensive at the thought.

"What was your mission?" he asked, rather abruptly. Almost as though he'd been going to ask something else but had then changed his mind. "The one you were before you were captured?"

Korra didn't answer, instead deciding to glare at him mutinously over her bent knees.

Mako raised an eyebrow, somehow managing to look uninterested and yet expectant at the same time. "Are you going to stay silent?"

Korra had been puzzling over why she had been kept alive ever since she'd awoken. And it seemed now she had her answer; they wanted information. Amon must have decided that Mako should try to weasel the information out of her before they resorted to torture.

"Voluntarily give information about my Avatar missions to an Equalist?" Korra drawled, rolling her eyes to the ceiling as she sarcastically pretended to consider it. "Gee, let me think; no! You want information, tell mask-man to hang me by my thumbs, because I'm certainly not going to be lulled into giving anything away!"

Mako shot her a look that suggested she was deeply stupid. "You weren't kept alive for information."

He said it as though it would have been patently obvious to even a two year-old. Which, of course, it wasn't. Korra had no idea why Amon hadn't ordered her throat slit while she was unconscious. But she suppressed the urge to throw herself at the fire bender with a screech of fury; while attacking him would have undoubtedly been immensely satisfying, it would also have been futile.

So, once again, she used a heavy layer of sarcasm to convey her anger and irritation. "Then what, pray tell, was I kept alive for?"

Mako gave a slight smirk. "You heard what I said before I knocked you out."

"Yeah..." Korra said slowly, remembering his rather possessive declaration. "But how does that lead to me still being alive?"

"Your identity may have been unclear when you first became my slave, but you are still my slave. Your fate is my decision."

Her life was in Mako's hands. This was really becoming a strong competitor for 'worst day of her life' – in fact, she thought it might have won. She'd been discovered by Amon, attacked by a slew of Equalist lackeys, knocked out by Mako and learned that her life was under the control of a man who seemed to have little compunction about killing her.

'And it's not even noon yet,' she reflected, with more than a tinge of fatalism.

"And Amon just accepted that?" she asked skeptically, unable to picture the leader of the Equalists being overly pleased at the idea that the Avatar had been sneaking around his base.

She could certainly picture him being irritated enough to feed her to something large and carnivorous, but she had no idea why he would release her to Mako's custody.

Mako didn't offer any reply; because there wasn't one that he could give her. He found Amon's acquiescence to Korra's presence rather strange, to say the least. He had the uncomfortable feeling that this was some kind of test, but he had no idea what the masked man could be testing.

Fortunately, Korra didn't seem to expect a reply. When her question fell flat, she made no move to speak again, simply watching him, her body taut, as though ready to leap out of the way at the slightest hint of an attack.

The tension in her body irritated him. He couldn't quite place the reason why, but some part of him wanted her to relax a little, to look at him with the same fearlessness she had when she was Koda.

It didn't escape him that there was something very ironic about that. She hadn't feared him before, because he hadn't known who she was. But now that she knew he was aware she was one of his former teammates and friend, she feared his reaction.

Still, given their last encounter, Mako acknowledged she had good reason to be wary. But didn't she know he couldn't do such a thing, not now that the collar left her so unable to defend herself against him?

"When you said there were people looking for you, you meant Bolin, didn't you?" he asked, hoping the mention of his brother would put her at ease.

But her reaction was the exact opposite. She became even more rigid, her eyes even more wary. "Of course I did. And Lin and Tenzin and everyone else."

She had no doubt that her teammates would be scouring the countryside for her, Bolin especially. It was reassuring, in a way, but she didn't allow herself to think about them much. Because, while it might be comforting, it was more depressing, than anything else. She didn't want to think about how they would be worrying over her, about how they must be assuming all sorts of hideous things were happening to her. No, it was better to just focus on getting home.

"Do you know how he found out?" Korra asked dully.

Mako had asked the same thing. Amon had confirmed one of his suspicions; there had indeed been an Equalist guard patrolling the perimeter of the building he and Korra were staying in at just the wrong time. He'd seen Mako's face of realization, perhaps heard him whisper Korra's name and had, as was required, reported it.

"But of course, you were going to tell me all about that, weren't you?" Amon had chastised the young man before him.

"Hn." Mako had chosen not to tell him that he'd never had any intention of doing so. Something in the masked man's eyes told him he'd already suspected as much.

"Well, she's all yours now," Amon said, his tone turning so salacious that Mako couldn't doubt his meaning. "Enjoy."

And not a moment had gone by since then that Mako didn't curse himself for not closing the curtains last night. Innuendo aside, he was certain Amon's motives were not as simple as they first appeared; they never were.

So Mako just shrugged, his face twisting in pain when his fractured ribs throbbed.

"I got some of your ribs, huh?" Korra said with a wintry smile.

Mako refused to acknowledge her slightly triumphant expression. He also refused to admit he was a little impressed. He was sure that, if she hadn't been collared, the blow would have been strong enough to snap his spine in two.

And she was showing no concern over the fact that she'd injured him. He had expected her to offer to heal him the moment she realised what her blow had done, regardless of whether she was actually capable of doing so with the collar on. But she hadn't: she was simply watching him with a cold, victorious smile curling her lips.

This was clearly a very different Korra to the one he remembered.

With a barely noticeable grimace of frustration and pain, Mako rose from the bed, making his way to the bathroom to find some ointment to soothe his very sore torso.

"What happens to me now?" Korra asked quietly, her eyes downcast.

Something in Mako's chest squeezed at the sight of her looking so resigned. "You will stay here. Lunch will be delivered to you, but you are not permitted to leave this room."

"What?!" Korra shrieked, resignation melting away in a hot rush of fury.

But Mako's eyes were as hard and flat as polished amber. "Do not make me lock you in."

For an instant, their eyes clashed in a war without words. Without preamble, Korra turned her head away, staring out the window instead of at him as he left the room.

She knew she'd lost this round but she had no intention of losing the war. She needed to play along for now; an unlocked door held far more opportunities than a locked one. The window was an obvious choice for an escape route. Too obvious. She wouldn't have put it past Amon to post a guard hidden somewhere in the garden whose sole purpose was to stare at the window and make sure she didn't try to slip out through it.

On that suspicion, she clambered onto her makeshift bed and leaned out the window, staring down into the garden. Sure enough, there were two Equalist guards in the garden, standing motionlessly, their eyes trained on her. Korra waited several moments, to see if they would move, before she casually slung a leg over the sill, as though she were about to climb out.

Their hands slid to their weapons.

With an exasperated sigh, Korra withdrew the limb and flopped back onto her bed, counting down ten minutes before she checked again, just in case they'd only been doing the rounds of the garden or something...

But they were still in the same place, eyes trained on the window.

Korra shut the window and kicked the wall in a fit of petulance. The window was still a viable option, but an extra level of complication had just been added.

So the young Avatar simply sighed, slumping back onto her window seat. Was the first day she was discovered too soon to try to escape? She thought it was – give it a few days, allow everything to settle down, let the guards become complacent and then she'd make her move.

Mako walked back to his room at the end of day, wondering if he'd find Korra in it or if she'd tried to escape already. It had felt slightly strange to go to training without a turquoise-eyed shadow trailing behind him. Of course, the turquoise-eyed shadow he had become so accustomed to had been Korra all along, and Mako still wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.

He opened the door, only half-expecting to see Korra sitting on her makeshift bed. Instead she was staring out the window at the setting sun. Her eyes flickered towards him, but she didn't acknowledge his presence.

Her indifference towards him irritated Mako. He didn't know what he had expected, but he'd expected something.

Korra studiously ignored Mako as he strode through the room and into the bathroom, the sound of water pelting against tile telling her he was showering. She knew she should be trying to persuade Mako to return to Republic City but she was tired, worried for her friends, and she just wanted to go home.

Her throat prickled a little, but Korra ruthlessly squashed the reaction, focusing on her rage at being held here against her will. Anger and sarcasm were a better refuge than tears and despair.

The sun set below the horizon and darkness seeped into the room, but Korra didn't bother to turn on the lights. Instead, she just curled up in her bed, shutting her eyes and surrendering to her physical and mental exhaustion, hoping she would wake in the morning to find this had all been some kind of crazy dream.

She knew she should stay awake at least until their dinner was delivered, but Korra had no appetite. Not tonight.

When she awoke in the morning, the room was deserted, and for a moment Korra thought Mako had already left for training. But no sooner had the thought entered her mind did the door open and Mako strode in, carrying two apples.

"Here," he said, tossing them to her.

Korra caught them, blinking in puzzlement. He was clearly giving her breakfast; her puzzlement didn't arise from that, but from trying to discern his motives. He had made no attempt to bully or hurt her, had actually bargained with her about locking the door yesterday, and was now bringing her breakfast in a clearly altruistic move.

In short, nothing of his current behaviour fit with the Mako she and Bolin had confronted a few months ago. This was more reminiscent of the boy she'd known in her pro-bending days; sensitive and aloof, but considerate and caring underneath that, no matter how much he protested otherwise.

For a moment, she wondered if her presence had somehow caused him to regress, but dismissed the thought.

Mako watched her bite into her apple, and decided now was as good a time as any to address their problem.

"You'll have to get rid of the blankets," he instructed bluntly.

She blinked at him and swallowed the bit of apple she had been chewing before asking, "Why?"

Mako had been hoping a little of the old Korra still dwelled within her, the one who had always assumed that his advice was the best, and had done whatever he asked. He really didn't want to explain why this was a necessity.

"Korra, just do it."

"Why?" she repeated calmly.

Mako gritted his teeth and made an effort to keep his face calm. "You won't need them; you'll be sleeping in the bed from now on."

"With you?" Korra thought her eyes might pop out of their sockets. "No way!"

There was no way she was sleeping next to Mako. She was no masochist; she wasn't going to compound her heartache by tantalising herself with things she could never have.

"We have to."

Korra glared and fought the urge to cram the apple in her hand down his throat and watch him choke on it. "Care to explain that reasoning to me?"

Mako sighed, as though dealing with a difficult child. "Amon allowed me to keep you as my slave because he believes I am using you for a very specific purpose. A purpose which would make it seem suspicious if we are not sharing the bed."

Comprehension dawned on Korra. Amon had allowed her to remain as Mako's slave because he thought Mako would now be having sex with her.

"Oh Spirits…" she muttered, running her hands through her short hair at the thought that Amon was speculating over her sex life.

Mako felt a little offended at the obvious distaste written across her features. Was the idea of sex with him really so repulsive? Apparently so, because Korra looked well and truly disgusted.

But it passed, and her expression became speculative. "What would happen if he found out that we aren't having sex? That you're keeping me around for, well, whatever reason you're keeping me around for?"

Mako didn't answer. He could make an educated guess at what would happen to her; Korra would be interrogated, and if she survived the torture, she would be handed over to one of the Equalist elites as a plaything. But he had no real concrete idea of what would happen to him. He was certain that this was some kind of test, and he was equally certain that he was failing whatever warped standard Amon was holding him to by refusing to take sexual advantage of Korra. So while he didn't know exactly what would happen to him if the ruse were ever discovered, he knew it would undoubtedly be unpleasant.

Something in his demeanor must have answered Korra's question, for she nodded very slightly in understanding, as though he'd given an eloquent verbal reply instead of stony silence. The idea that she might have been able to pick up on his mental speculations was unsettling in more ways than one, and he looked away, rising and reaching for his kali sticks.

There was something surprisingly domestic in the scene, Korra reflected as she bit into her fruit once more. Her eating the apples he'd brought her, and him preparing for his training. Of course, they'd shared many other 'domestic' moments previously, but this time was different. This time, she wasn't pretending to be someone else. This time, Mako knew it was her.

"Do not leave the room," he stated before he shut the door.

Korra made a rather rude gesture at the closed door. Pointless, yes, but it eased the sting of bitterness at the fact that her captive status could not have been clearer. When she had been identifying as Koda, she had possessed some small measure of freedom, but now even that had been taken from her.

She knew that she had promised herself she would try to convince Mako to return to Republic City but she was just so mad at him! She could either be extremely morose over what had happened to them, to all of them, Bolin included, or she could be extremely furious at him.

And frankly, Korra knew which option she preferred. Anger she could deal with, anger she could handle. Anger was much, much safer than wallowing in misery.

But still, she had to try to reason with him. For Bolin's sake, if no one else's.

Korra decided she would give herself one more day. One more day to sulk and rage at him and the world and then she'd try to make nice.

One more day.

By the time Mako returned, Korra was out of her mind with boredom. She knew it would be a bad idea to attempt an escape when she had yet to form a real plan, but she had been sorely tempted to just jump out the window and run for it, guards be damned. Even taking into account the fact that she'd suffer for being caught, at least healing the resulting injuries would give her something to do!

With a sigh, Korra meditated for the tenth time that day, figuring that as long as she was stuck here without anything else to do, she might as well use the time to work on her form.

She heard the door open, and her eyes flickered over to Mako as she completed the last of the moves. She saw his glance skim over the window seat, now bare of blankets. She had obeyed him, and folded them away in the closet during the course of the day.

Just because she didn't like the idea of sleeping in the same bed as him didn't mean she didn't understand why it was important. From what he had told her, Amon had handed her to Mako on the premise that he would use her as a sex toy, and she understood that it was important they make the masked-man believe that was exactly what was happening.

The more Korra thought about it, the more she realised that Mako's claim on her had probably saved her from a far worse fate, but she couldn't puzzle out why he'd done it. After all, he had tried to kill both her and Bolin barely eight months ago, so why would he make such an effort to keep her safe now?

Dinner was a silent affair. Korra was doing her very best not to think about the fact that they would soon be sharing a bed. There was something very surreal about the situation; they were barely on speaking terms with each other and yet they were preparing to sleep side by side.

She went through her bedtime ritual automatically, her mind running in circles like a mouse in an exercise wheel. Her stomach was knotting in a combination of dread and eager anticipation; dread because she was sure this would do her emotional stability no good, and eager anticipation because she couldn't quite stomp out her traitorous heart's joy in being close to him.

'I'll have to work on that,' she told herself.

It hadn't been this difficult when she had been Koda however back then, she'd been playing a part, hiding behind the identity of a boy with some degree of bending potential. Now there was no mask to wear, no veil to hide behind.

Now, she was just Korra, and all that that entailed.

She emerged from the bathroom, passing Mako on his way in as she headed for the bed, determined not to worry about it, but to just go to bed as though she slept next to ex-teammates who'd defected from their home town every day. After all, making a big deal out of this would only make her more anxious than she already was.

Korra slipped beneath the sheets she was fairly sure were made of silk or some equally expensive and luxurious material, lying as far towards the side as she comfortably could, facing away from the center to ensure Mako would be presented with her back. This would be difficult enough without looking into his eyes as she fell asleep; that she simply refused to do, afraid of what her own eyes might reveal to him as exhaustion lowered her guard.

She had chosen the side nearest the window so she could stare into the night, searching for constellations she recognised as the stars shimmered like diamonds strewn across black velvet.

She tensed, but didn't so much as blink as Mako finished up in the bathroom and moved quietly to the bed. Korra felt a cool draft of air caress her back as he lifted the blankets and slid within their warm cocoon.

She could feel the heat radiating from his body; feel the blankets on top of her shift every time he breathed. She wondered if he felt a shift when she breathed, or if her movements were too small in comparison to be noticed above his own.

She then told herself to stop thinking on it and concentrate on resting. Her muscles were tight and tense. She did her best to concentrate on breathing deeply in and out; a little meditation trick Tenzin had taught her.

When she felt her body loosen a little,

Korra closed her eyes and tried to quiet her mind, though she had a feeling sleep would be a long time in taking her.