Page 9 of Cruel As A Tree

Put me down, Veveron said, not floating down as she had done previously.

I plucked her off my shoulder and carefully set her down. Something squeaked and rustled in the bushes, and her head swiveled, sniffing the air.

"Is this to your liking?" Lorthian asked.

Tell him I approve, Veveron said.

"She likes it," I told him.

Now leave. Do not bother me, Veveron said.

"You don't want me to groom you first?" I asked.

I will come find you when I want you, she replied.

"You got it," I said, and headed out of the building and shut the door behind me.

"It is a perfect nest for a Saffrill. There are foods of many types, including a rodent for hunting that will not bother her eggs or young," Lorthian said. "She will not emerge until after her eggs are hatched."

"I didn't even know she laid eggs," I sighed. Then I rolled my shoulders, reaching up to rub one. There was a stiffness in my neck from climbing up a wall, rappelling down it, and then running for my life. The only reason I knew how to do that was because I used to go to the climbing gym with my family back in the Mundane realm, but I never did anything quite so risky as I did trying to escape that place.

Sadness washed over me.

I went to the school interview thinking I would go back home afterwards and be a witch or something of that sort. Instead, I got the reality of slavery in the disguise of debt repayment and no way home. I never should have come.

"Let me show you your home," Lorthian said, his voice rich with an edge of eagerness I couldn't match.

That word caused me to flinch again, but I nodded.

I followed him to another building. He opened the door, but I didn't step inside. I could see a lush, looking room, almost cottage core in its coziness... but I couldn't bring myself to care. It wasn't the rooms that mattered to me.

"There is a bathing chamber with hot water to soak in," Lorthian said. "I have prepared a dinner for you to feast upon. This can be your home."

With his words, all of the exhaustion and terror, the flight and the homesickness, all came crashing down on me at once.One tear, then another, began to slip down my cheeks even as I lifted my hand to try to wipe them away.

"You are crying," Lorthian said.

"I'm fine," I said as I swiped furiously at my face, unable to stop the flow. "I'm fine. Everything is fine. I'll be fine."

"But you are crying," Lorthian said.

"I'm just tired, I'll be okay," I said, the tears still sliding down my cheeks. I sniffled.

"You don't like it when I say the word home," Lorthian said. "You are crying now after I said it, and before you recoiled from me."

"I just..." I sniffed again, trying to get those stupid tears from exposing me. I didn't want him to see me crying. I didn't want anyone to see my crying. I was tough. I could handle any and all of this. Of all the times I could have broken down since I got to this realm, now that I was relatively safe was not the moment I thought I would start. "I just miss my home. I miss my family."

"This can be your home," Lorthian said, repeating himself from earlier.

I couldn't contain it.

The dam burst and I sat down on the ground, tucked my legs to my chest, and pressed my face into my knees. I couldn't stop the sobs, so I muffled them, crying into my legs with garish, ugly sounds that reflected the pushed-down sorrow I'd carried around for too long.

I don't know how long I cried like that, but when I eventually lifted my head to look around,

Lorthian was gone.

Chapter

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