"Mother, no!" Aysel screamed. She wrenched herself from her father's protective arms and dragged herself across the tangled bed, reaching for her mother's arm. But it was too late. A flood of blood was already rising from the gash in her wrist, pooling in the air above her like a fierce storm. She sent it racing towards Dunyasha's chest, twisting it into knives and daggers as it flew. Dunyasha dodged. The spikes missed her chest but impaled her shoulder, and the force of the blow pushed her against the wall. She cried out, and seeing her in pain, Aysel did too.

"Stop!" she yelled. She finally took hold of her mother's hand. "She's not dangerous!"

Her mother turned to her, eyes wide with fear and disbelief. She kept her blade poised above her dripping wrist. "Aysel, get back behind your father."

"No!" She slipped out of her father's reach and before her mother could stop her, ran to Dunyasha.

"Aysel!" her father called, but she didn't listen.

She threw her arms out in front of Dunyasha, just like her mother had done for her. "Don't hurt her," she begged. "I can explain."

Her father was on his feet now too, his own blade in hand. "Aysel, you've gone mad," he said in a shaking voice. "Get away from that thing before it kills you."

"She won't kill me! We're..." She didn't know how to finish, but knew this wasn't the time to ask.

"We're on the same side," said Dunyasha from behind her. She pulled herself off the wall and walked, hand clutched to her bleeding shoulder, to stand next to Aysel.

Her parents gasped. "It can talk?" her father whispered incredulously.

"'She,'" Aysel said. "Not 'it.' 'She.'" She reached out a hand, and Dunyasha took it. Her parents' eyes widened further. "This is Dunyasha," she said. "I went looking for someone to help Elkin, and I found her. We're going to try our best to save him."

"But... but it's a Beast!" her mother whispered.

"She's a person. Quite a good one, actually." Dunyasha's hand tightened in hers. "We're going to try to help Elkin, but we have bigger problems."

Dunyasha nodded. "The people who did this to your son are planning on doing it to others. We need to stop them."

Her father blinked. "We?"

"We," she said simply. "It is time for my people to stand alongside Letters in battle, rather than against them."

"How do we know this isn't a Beast trick?" her mother asked. "You bewitched our daughter. Now you're trying to fool us with your lies."

"She's not lying, and I'm not bewitched," Aysel said, still holding Dunyasha's hand, she stepped forward. "There are people who plan to kill all Letters with the same poison that hurt Elkin. Dunyasha wants to help us fight them. If she doesn't, more people will die. We need her help. And we need all the help we can get for Elkin." She looked down at his sleeping face, and gently brushed a curl off his forehead. It felt as brittle as ash in her fingers. "If you can't trust her, trust me. For him."

Her mother bit her chapped lips. "I will... listen." She let her blade fall. "For him."

But before Aysel could get a word out of her mouth, the cabin was flooded with light. She threw her hand up over her eyes; even torches were blinding after so long in the dark. She instinctively pulled Dunyasha closer to her, as if she could protect her from the red-cloaked figures that stormed into the cabin.

"Elrel, Aydin," the woman in the front said "We heard shouting. Has Elkin woken? Is there news of Aysel?"

Her mother said nothing, but her eyes darted over to where Aysel and Dunyasha stood. There was no time for them to hide as the woman raised her torch. The light fell on Dunyasha's wild face and curved body, illuminating her as bright as sunlight.

The crowd gasped in horror and took a step back. "A Beast!" one of the crowd whispered hoarsely.

"It has Aysel!" another said, seeing their entwined hands.

Dunyasha stepped forward, ignoring Aysel tugs to pull her back. "Wait! Let us explain."

The mob gasped again. "It talks!"

"Kill it!"

"No!" Aysel cried. "Don't hurt her!"

"Don't hurt our daughter!" said Aysel's father in a thunderous voice. He rushed between her and the others, quickly followed by her mother. Their eyes blazed in the torchlight. Their hands were tight on their blades.

"Get her away from the Beast!" a man shouted, his arm already bared.

Dunyasha took another step forwards. "We can talk about this--"

"Back, Beast!" someone screamed. There was the sound of a blade cutting into flesh.

"Down!" Aysel's yell mingled with her parents'. She pulled on Dunyasha's arm with all her might and succeeded in dragging her backwards, leaving the bloody spikes to sail just past her head.

"Don't hurt our daughter!" her father repeated, blade poised above his own arm.

Aysel's breath came in panicky gasps. She looked at the door, their only escape, filled with people who wanted Dunyasha dead. She knew these faces. She had seen them every day of her life, but now they were filled with anger and fear, contorted into strangers. It needed to stop. And so Aysel did the only thing she could think of.

She closed her eyes and screamed.

Everyone packed into the tiny cabin turned to look at her. Quiet fell. She stood silently for a moment, chest heaving. And then she spoke. "You need to listen to us. There is a group of People-- Beasts, as you know them-- coming to kill all Letters. Stop! Don't talk!" she commanded, silencing the whispers in the crowd. "We need help. The poison they will use will make us weak. But her people are immune." She held Dunyasha's hand, entwined with hers. "They are our only chance at winning this fight. We need their help to survive. Or else we'll all end up like my brother."

"I will help you fight," Dunyasha said. The torch-bearers stepped back, but said nothing. "The war between my people and yours has gone on too long. It's time we stood together to prevent even more death. I can convince my people to fight alongside yours, if you will fight with us."

"Trust me," Aysel said. "You know me. I am your neighbor, your friend, your daughter," she said to the people she had grown with, trained with, loved. "I went out hoping to find a cure for my brother, but I found salvation for us all." She picked up the altar candle from Elkin's bedside. "The Ancient Ones guided me on my journey." She looked at Dunyasha, at her proud jaw and her mountain-range nose, and felt her heart rise. "They led me to her. Surely you can feel it in your blood? If we want our rivers to flow, we need to join forces. We've both done such terrible things. I've done terrible things, but here is a chance for redemption. Here is a chance for peace at last."

She fell silent. All eyes were on her, but with Dunyasha by her side, she did not feel their weight. She felt only hope.

Out of the silence, a whisper from the crowd. "The girl's gone mad."

"No," Aysel said.

"She's in league with a Beast."

"The monster bewitched her."

"Probably stole her that night."

"No!" Aysel rushed forward, but her parents stopped her.

"Aysel..." her mother breathed. "You can't trust a Beast."

She took a step back, shaking her head. Her breath fluttered in her chest as the voices grew louder and louder.

"We need to kill it."

"We need to save her."

"Drain the madness out of her."

"The Ancient Ones are testing us!"

"The Beast must be killed."

"Kill the Beast to save the girl!"

"No!" Aysel screamed. She pushed past her parents, leaping for the door. "Dunyasha, run!"

But there were too many of them. As soon as she moved, the air was filled with blood, racing towards Dunyasha like knives. They cut into her, slicing through her clothes and skin, forcing a howl of pain from her lips.

"Dunyasha!" But now there were hands on Aysel, hands hauling her up by her forearms, hands ripping her blade off the cord from around her neck. One clapped over her mouth to muffle her screams, but it didn't stop her from seeing that her parents' blood had joined the mass swirling towards Dunyasha like deadly ribbons, engulfing her in a cloud of torch-lit crimson. She felt her knees collapse beneath her as another agonized cry rang out. She closed her eyes against the sight. She refused to watch Dunyasha die.

"Wait!"

She opened her eyes.

The attack had stopped. All Letters watched as Aysel's mother stepped forward towards the slumped, blood-soaked figure on the ground in front of them and stood in front of Dunyasha. "It said it may be able to heal my son," she whispered. "I want it alive. I don't care what you do to it, but we need it alive."

The hands on Aysel's arms slackened for a moment, and she took her chance. Aysel threw herself forward, breaking free of the holds on her. She stumbled forward, dropped to her knees to avoid the hands grabbing for her again, and let her slide on the blood-slick floor carry her towards Dunyasha.

She took her face in her hands. It was crisscrossed with deep gashes and covered in smears of her own and Letter blood. Her eyelids fluttered and she let out a low moan. People again grabbed her by her arms and tried to haul her away, but she kicked out at their feet. They went crashing to the floor.

"Aysel, what are you doing?" her father yelled out over the chaos.

She pulled Dunyasha's unconscious body to her chest. "She's dying," Aysel said. "She won't survive this unless someone heals her." She reached for her blade, but it wasn't there.

"You're right. We need to keep it alive," Aysel's mother said, crouching beside her daughter and holding up a hand to stop the others.

"Then give me my blade."

Her mother opened her mouth, then bit her dry lip. "I don't know if that is... wise."

"What do you mean?"

"The others are right." She took a hold of Aysel's bloody, shaking hands, pulled them away from Dunyasha's face. "This monster has some awful hold over you."

"She's not a monster, mother," Aysel whispered. "I trust her with my life. I think I... I think I might..."

"The Beast has twisted your mind with its lies."

"No."

"We need to do this for your own good."

"Wait, what?"

Her mother stood. "Take her to the woodshed and lock her in until we find how to break the spell." Immediately, the mob seized her again. Aysel kicked and fought, but there were too many. She bit her cheek and spat blood, but it was weak, and they batted it away. "Take the Beast as well."

Dunyasha groaned weakly as a group of Letters nervously prodded her, then started dragging her across the floor.

"Mother! Father! Do something!"

Her parents turned to her, worried smiles on their faces. "Don't fret, Aysel. You can heal the monster so it can heal Elkin, and we'll get all this sorted out," her mother said. "We'll break the spell it put on you, and when you're thinking right, we'll make sure this Beast never hurts you again."

"No!"

But she was already being pulled out the door and into the night. She dragged her heels in the snow, twisted her body, spat small strings of blood, screamed, begged, but nothing loosened their hands. They dragged her through the streets of her home, beneath the monument that had once been hung with trophies, past cabins with doorways filled by curious onlookers. They did nothing but watch as Aysel and Dunyasha were thrown into the small but sturdily-built community woodshed. They were gentle with Aysel, but dumped Dunyasha roughly to the ground. Her head hit the bundle of logs with a sickening thump, but they didn't seem to care.

From the ground, she looked up at the people who had put her here: her neighbors and friends. "Please listen," she whispered, her voice cracking.

They said nothing. They slammed the heavy wooden door in her face, casting the shed into darkness. From outside, she could hear the scrape of something heavy being leaned against the door, the drip of blood from someone's wrist as they drew a precautionary binding circle around the shed. She heard people volunteer to stand guard. She heard people volunteer to kill the Beast if it escaped, no matter what Aydin said.

Aysel let herself collapse on the floor. Her heart, which had already been beating quickly, stepped into an even faster rhythm. No way out. There was no way out. Dunyasha was going to die here, and it was all her fault.

"No, no, no," she whimpered, clutching her head madly. She couldn't have a panic attack now, not when she needed her wits about her more than ever. But need didn't matter. Her breath grew faster, out of her control; her body started to shake and twitch like Elkin during the unsuccessful attempts to heal him.

Elkin. He would die, too, and it was her fault. So many people would die, because she hadn't been able to convince them to trust Dunyasha.

Dunyasha. She tried to say her name, but the words stopped in her throat, and nothing but a whimper escaped her trembling lips. She needed to calm down and heal her, but there was no Enrick to talk her through it, no Dunyasha to hold her. The tears that had been welling in her eyes started to fall.

"Don't cry," croaked a familiar voice behind her.

Aysel took a shaky gasp and turned around. On the floor in front of her was Dunyasha, covered in blood and slashes, but breathing. Awake.

Aysel's face crumpled and her tears fell harder. "Dunyasha."

She smiled as much as she could through bleeding lips. "Crying like that, people'd think you'd been the one ripped open by magic blood."

Aysel crawled over to her, sobs tearing their way through her. Dunyasha raised a shaking hand and placed it on her cheek, wiping away her tears once again. "Don't cry, Aysel. We'll find a way out. We always do."

"But how?" she asked.

"Well, we can start by healing me."

"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry."

"No need to say sorry. Just hurry. I feel like I've been made into a Letter trophy still alive."

Aysel wasted no time in pulling up her sleeve. She had no blade, so she scratched open one of the many cuts with her fingers and let her blood flow. "Open," she said gently.

Dunyasha's eyes fluttered closed as she opened her mouth.

Aysel let her blood flow in. She could feel as it pulsed through Dunyasha's body, tingling with her heartbeat and her own. It healed all if came across, but it wasn't enough. There was so much pain, so many injuries. Aysel increased the stream, pulling strength from her veins and sending it into Dunyasha. She watched as the cuts on her skin turned into healed, twisted scars. She smiled, even though she could feel her own limbs getting weaker and weaker.

She let herself slowly sink to the floor. Her heartbeat was slow in her chest, but it didn't matter, because Dunyasha was opening her eyes and smiling down at her.

Her smile slipped. "Aysel! What happened?" she asked as she hurried over to her. She knelt and lifted Aysel's head into her lap. "Are you okay?"

"You were... really hurt," Aysel muttered, eyes fluttering up at her. "I fixed you."

"And hurt yourself. Oh, Aysel..."

"Not hurt. Just... weak." She looked up at her. "I need to... rest..."

"Aysel!" Dunyasha cried, but she was already sinking off to sleep.

She woke to Dunyasha's face hovering over hers. "Aysel?"

"Mm."

"Oh, thank the stars. You have to stop scaring me like that," Dunyasha said hoarsely. "If I have to wonder if you'll wake up again one more time, I don't know what I'll do."

"You shouldn't worry," Aysel said,looking around at her surroundings. They were still trapped in the woodshed, but Dunyasha was safe, her scars healed into thin white lines that ran over her face and body. She was cradling her in her lap. "I gave a lot of blood. I needed a moment to recover."

"Are you recovered now?"

Her body was still tired and her veins ached, but she felt much better than before she had passed out. Her body was already replenishing its lost blood. "Yes." She wrapped a hand around Dunyasha's shoulder and pulled herself up until their eyes were level, yellow meeting dark brown. "I'm fine."

"It scares me so much to see you hurt," she murmured, wrapping her arms around Aysel's waist, pulling her in. "Or unconscious. What if you don't wake up?"

"I will. I did."

"You did." Dunyasha smiled, her golden eyes crinkling. "Are you sure you're fine?"

"I am."

"Good."

And then she closed her eyes, leaned in, and kissed her.

It was like nothing else.

Dunyasha's lips were somehow soft and strong at the same time as she pressed into Aysel, who made a small, high sound of surprise somewhere in the back of her throat. Dunyasha pulled away, her cheeks aflame, her lips wet. "I'm so sorry-- I though--" she stuttered.

Aysel stopped her by taking her blushing, scarred face in her hands and kissing back, so passionately that Dunyasha had to throw a hand out behind her for balance. The next moment it was Aysel who was tumbling, the pressure of Dunyasha's returned kiss bending Aysel backwards in her lap. She didn't mind. Dunyasha's mouth opened under hers, and Aysel realized she tasted like forest rain.

Aysel pulled back a moment, gasping for air, her lips already curling into a smile. Dunyasha smiled too, her cheeks still red. She raised one eyebrow as Aysel shifted her body so one leg rested on either side of Dunyasha.

"Yes?" Aysel asked.

Dunyasha grinned back and blinked her heavy, golden eyes. She raised her hand and ran it through Aysel's short hair, letting the other run down her waist and settle on her thigh. "Yes."

And their lips were together again. She gasped as Dunyasha suddenly leaned forwards to leave a chain of kisses down her neck. Aysel let her head tilt back and smiled delightedly as Dunyasha let her tongue trail softly across her skin. She sat there, eyelids fluttering, until a gentle hand under her chin asked her to come back in. Aysel happily obeyed, and once again gave her lips up to the sweet softness of Dunyasha's open mouth and the feel of her hands running up and down her body, leaving fire in their wake.

She kissed back fiercely, then pulled away for a moment to breathe and to let out the smile that had been building in her. She kept her eyes closed, kept her nose pressed against Dunaysha's. Their lips brushed, and Aysel could feel that, like her, Dunyasha's mouth was curved in a contented, blissful smile. She wished they could stay like that, lips just touching, eyes closed, sharing warm breaths, forever.

The door slammed open.

Aysel and Dunyasha both looked up in fear.

Silhouetted in the light of the rising morning sun was Aysel's parents, followed by what seemed the entire village. Their eyes widened at the sight of Aysel in Dunyasha's embrace.

Aysel only gripped her tighter. "You can't take her," she said, as if her stocky arms would do anything against the blood and might of the Letters gathered before her.

"We haven't come for her," he mother answered. As she stepped forward, Aysel could see that her face glistened with tears. "Aysel..."

"No," she whispered. "Elkin."

Her father put his hand on his wife's trembling arm. "It isn't what you think. Elkin lives."

Her heart crashed back down into her chest from her throat, sending warm waves of relief spreading through her, but they were stopped by another drop of cold fear. She held Dunyasha tighter. "Don't hurt her."

"We're not going to, not anymore," her mother said. "She may be our best chance."

"What happened?"

"A man arrived at daybreak. From Westbridge," her father said. "A few days ago, they were attacked. A group of Beasts, throwing a dust that killed them as soon as they breathed."

Her heart froze again. She had been there. She knew how many people there were there. "How many survived?" she asked in a too-high voice.

"As far as we know? One."

One. One person out of hundreds. "No," she whispered again.

"Yes. They're all dead. And they're coming for us."