[Isolde]
I woke to softness. Gentle, encompassing warmth that felt like being wrapped in sunlight.
My eyelids were heavy, each blink a monumental effort as the world swam in and out of focus, colours bleeding together like watercolour on wet canvas.
'Where...?'
I tried to piece together what had happened. There were flashes—Anderson's twisted smile, the whip cracking against my back, gunshots echoing through the trees. Running. Always running. Then... arrows. Pain. So much pain.
And then darkness.
Was that death? Was I in a place on the other side?
I couldn't make out the shapes shifting in the dim light. Couldn't even make out a figure in front of me—small, familiar. Dark hair. Bright eyes.
It was almost ironic. To think my last memory would be of my son. The same one I'd failed.
