Page 51 of Knot Your Fated M.U.S.E.

Protests rise immediately from the others, but she shakes her head firmly.

"You're all still young. You have real chances out there. Your skin won't limit you like mine will. Your pasts haven't eaten up your prime years like mine has. You could be the first to actually survive Ravenscroft and escape. If I can help make that happen..." A small, genuine smile touches her lips. "That would mean something. Give all this some purpose."

She settles back down, then turns to me with curious eyes.

"Since you're into giving people names and knowing zodiac signs, what's mine?"

I hesitate for a moment.

Speak your truth. Take claim of those who carry similarities to our uniqueness.

"Taurus. One who refuses to break,” I whisper. Her silence leaves me wondering if I’m right or not.

Azurite leans forward.

"And mine?"

“Aquarius. Turns submission into strategy,” I answer, and she smiles – a real smile that transforms her face.

"You're right."

"What about me?" Luna asks eagerly.

“Pisces. One who sees beyond sight.” I tell her, and she nods with delight.

"Exactly right!"

All eyes turn to Riot, who huffs out a laugh.

"You're either into some serious voodoo shit or black magic."

A small giggle escapes me – the sound so foreign it startles even me.

"Aside from the voices in my head that I call shadows, I'm really not that special."

The moment feels surreal – four broken women sharing genuine laughter in a place designed to destroy us. The voices whisper that this is important, this connection being forged in darkness.

"What about you?" Riot asks, her earlier vulnerability creating space for curiosity. "Everyone's got a story that landed them here. What's yours?"

The voices in my head stir restlessly as I search through the fog where memories should be. It's like trying to recall a dream that slips further away the harder you chase it.

Fragments flash and fade – a laugh here, a touch there, the ghost of emotions I can't quite grasp.

"I don't remember, honestly." The admission feels both simple and devastating in its implications. "Sometimes I think I have a sister somewhere. Someone who shares my face, but maybe with different eyes? It's hard to be sure if the memories are real or just wishes my mind created to fill the emptiness."

I close my eyes, trying to catch the wisps of memory that dance just out of reach.

"When I'm falling asleep, I sometimes hear a woman singing lullabies. The melody feels important, feels like home, but it fades as soon as I try to hold onto it. There must have been a father too, but..." I shrug, the gesture carrying the weight of allthose lost moments. "Six years in Ravenscroft is all I know for certain."

The others' expressions shift at this revelation.

Azurite's heterochromatic eyes narrow in calculation, while Luna's unseeing gaze seems to look straight through me. Even Riot's perpetual anger falters, replaced by something that might be pity if she allowed herself such soft emotions.

Their reactions tell me what they won't say aloud – that their stays here have been shorter, that they haven't lost themselves to this place the way I have.

The realization should hurt, or at least make me feel something more than this quiet acceptance. But after six years of trials and tests, of pain and loss, even grief feels like a distant memory.

Instead of pain, I find myself smiling – really grinning, for what feels like the first time in years. The expression feels foreign on my face, muscles moving in patterns they've almost forgotten.

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