It didn't take long to find the family, since their flags were everywhere. Ferdinand and his kid had dropped Sasha on shore, then taken off before she could try to make excuses for herself. She doubted she would ever see them again, and the crow still hadn't returned to tell her what to do next. Not that she needed him. 

Her feet sank into the sand on the shoreline as she made her way up the docks, toward what she thought was a road sticking out toward the end of the beach. She glanced back behind her shoulder. The docks here were short and stuck out only a few feet, instead of towering like they did in Horizon. It made her feel uncomfortably exposed. 

One of the fishermen leered at her as she crossed the beach and onto the roadway. Her eyes darted from side to side, hand reaching protectively for her sword. Hopefully no one else would notice that it had been stolen. 

Hello, Human Girl.

She froze, eyes darting around for a flash of black and white she did not see. No crow. "Where are you?"

Not here. Keep walking down the street. There is a large human dwelling soon.

Her mouth curved downward into a distrustful frown, but she kept walking anyway. The crow had led her into trouble enough times for her to know not to take what it said at face value. What was she supposed to do, just walk up to the door and knock?

You were looking for work, it said. And I have not yet gotten you into trouble. A flash of black and white peeked through the pine trees lining the road, barely visible in the patches of shadows interspersed throughout the tree branches. Sasha sighed relief. It was following her then.

"You saw me on the boat," she said, barely glancing in its direction as she walked. It had let her think she was abandoned, and she couldn't help but be irritated by that. She pictured herself left on the shoreline, growing thinner and thinner until some wild animal found her. A prickle ran up her spine.

You are too bony to eat. 

"I'm not and you know it," Sasha said, wrapping her arms around her midriff. She'd grown thinner since she'd started traveling, sure, and her stomach had lost some of its softness. But there was plenty of her for a snake to eat, if it got the mind to. She shuddered at the memory of the one that had wrapped around her torso and squeezed her unconscious.

You lack faith in yourself.

Sasha rolled her eyes. It was right, but that seemed irrelevant now. She didn't have the ability to peer into peoples' heads and see what they were thinking, just an iron will and a desire not to die. She couldn't bear to lose another thing, not after everything else. Her chest tightened again. She didn't know how she was going to handle it when they parted ways.

Perhaps you won't.

Sasha's fists tightened by a degree. "You don't understand."

Why do you believe I am incapable of understanding sadness?

Sasha fought the urge to stand and put her head in her hands. Her eyes burned again. She wasn't sad. This wasn't a depressing moment at the end of one of those fairytale books her mother had given her when she was a child.

She was heartbroken. 

"For once I thought maybe someone cared about me enough to--"

To what? Sasha paused and closed her eyes to try to blink back the burning. No one would possibly want someone they couldn't hold at night when it got cold and dark. No one wanted someone whose skin crawled at the thought of removing their clothes. 

She remembered thinking, once upon a time, that Driver might someday make a good pet. That he might one day calm enough for her to trust. That someday she would not have to tie his legs at night and hope he hadn't found a way to undo them in the morning. That he wouldn't end her like he'd ended Damien had.

She'd known the entire time how selfish it was to expect that. She knew that Driver would never be a pet, and that Rannok would never love her. She knew how hopeless the situation was. It was unfair of her to expect him to see past that and somehow she had expected it anyway. 

Anger boiled behind her breastbone. The least he could have done was not continue to give her hope, and it made her cheeks flush and her jaw tense, even though it wasn't Rannok's fault, it was hers.

Then why are you still trying to save him, if you have lost hope?

Sasha did stop walking then, but only for a moment, only to think. She knew the answer, even though it was uncomfortable and hard to think about. She had to because otherwise she would never stop looking over her shoulder for him to come back. She had to know for certain, just in case she was wrong, though she already knew she wasn't.

"Because I love him," she said quietly, her hands dropping from around her stomach. She couldn't fix that any better than she could make anyone else feel what she wanted to, instead of what they did.

I do not understand humans, the crow replied in its shadow voice. 

"I know," she said, before starting to walk again. The road was getting wider. The fish flags had grown more numerous, until finally the road took a sharp left. At the end of it was the biggest house that Sasha had ever seen. It towered into the skyline, like one of the buildings she'd always imagined in Agatine, at least a full four levels into the air. She swallowed and tried to force her eyes back into their sockets.

He has been taken inside, the crow said.

Sasha nodded. "I got it, thanks."

She forced herself to think about something else as she approached the door and raised her fist to knock. This was by far the stupidest idea she'd ever had.