The next morning, Ketcha awoke to the aroma of baking pastry, a scent weaving its way through the cabin. Asbel stood by the stove, carefully removing a tray of golden pastries from the oven. These traditional Pejite delicacies, filled with pinkberries and chiko nuts, were comforting reminders of home. Ketcha watched him, a faint smile appearing despite the lingering pain in her body.
As she sat up, wincing slightly, her injuries were visibly pronounced. Her hands and feet bore burns, cruel reminders of her ordeal with the fearful Mani people. She shared with Asbel the harrowing tale of her experience: the Mani's attempt to exorcise an evil spirit they believed possessed her, leading to her burns, and her narrow escape from slave catchers in the Tula desert, leaving her with deep bruises and cuts still throbbing with pain.
"Asbel, I came here to see you one last time," she confessed, her voice steady yet tinged with sadness. "I planned to leave the Valley afterward, to wander aimlessly, facing whatever fate awaits me. I thought it better this way, to not burden you or anyone else."
Asbel's expression became resolute, his eyes reflecting deep understanding and determination. "Ketcha, you can't think like that. You're not ill; what you have might be a unique ability we don't yet understand. You shouldn't run away from it, or from us."
The earnestness in his voice ignited something within Ketcha. Tears formed in her eyes, not solely from fear and uncertainty, but from the realization that she was no longer alone. Asbel's words challenged the narrative she had long believed.
For months, Ketcha had been tormented by her condition, haunted by voices in the rocks. She felt cursed, an outcast destined to roam the fringes of sanity. But now, in the warmth of Asbel's cabin, with sunlight streaming through the window and casting playful shadows on the floor, she felt a glimmer of hope.
As she closed her eyes, letting the warmth of the stove lull her into a sense of security, Ketcha knew that the road ahead would be challenging. But for the first time in a long while, she felt she might not have to face it alone.
