本章概述：

????????????亞歷桑德拉睡著又醒來(lái)。

????????????In which Alessandra sleeps and then wakes.

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正文：

“這不是我想要的！”

我扯著嗓子喊出這些話(huà)語(yǔ)，對(duì)著周?chē)仓婕喌暮诎岛敖心×宋业暮韲怠Ｋ劳龅你~臭充斥著我的鼻腔，在舌面上覆上了一層屠宰場(chǎng)般濕滑的銹跡。

護(hù)甲沉重地掛在我的周身，它的動(dòng)力核心早已死去，閃耀的金色和銀紫色蝕刻被銹蝕到不復(fù)存在。即便是亞光黑的生熱密封劑也被刮去，展現(xiàn)出裸露，破碎的陶鋼。

另外幾步把我?guī)щx了推進(jìn)的人群，但這仍然不夠。永遠(yuǎn)也不夠，因?yàn)槲也粚⒁矡o(wú)從逃離她們。

我不被允許逃離，因?yàn)樗齻冞€沒(méi)有……一個(gè)也沒(méi)有。

“求求你！”我踉蹌著后退，這些話(huà)語(yǔ)脫口而出?！拔摇徫野伞?/p>

我跪倒在地，累到無(wú)法繼續(xù)下去，累到再也無(wú)法跑開(kāi)，而那些人形在我身邊圍成了該死的一圈。

“求求你，姐妹們，”我痛苦地啜泣著，“求求你們?cè)徫摇?/p>

她們從來(lái)都沒(méi)有。她們從不責(zé)怪也不諒解，亦未曾指控或釋?xiě)选?/p>

她們只是盯著。

她們的軀體殘破不堪，可她們?nèi)匀痪o盯著。她們的護(hù)甲在上千把獸人巨斧的壓迫下不堪重負(fù)，她們的骨骼斷裂，她們的肢體血肉模糊，頭顱支離破碎，血液從破裂的陶鋼中噴涌而出。

一如既往地，她們看起來(lái)就如我所見(jiàn)的最后一面。我記得卡利昂的無(wú)頭遺骸從碾碎了她的頭骨的獸人老大的抓握中跌落。我記得阿提卡被十幾個(gè)聒噪的雜碎淹沒(méi)時(shí)高喊著抵抗，她的喊叫聲在自己被劈成兩半時(shí)糊成了語(yǔ)無(wú)倫次的一團(tuán)。

以及悲慘的余（Yu）姐妹，我們之中最年輕的，甚至比我更小。這本是她身為光耀紫藤修會(huì)完全合格的姐妹的首戰(zhàn)。這一戰(zhàn)本該光輝壯麗，對(duì)她來(lái)說(shuō)，這本不該隨著她的胸廓被某個(gè)走運(yùn)的獸人射擊小子一槍擊碎而如此迅速地結(jié)束。

加西特姐妹緊盯著我，她的頭顱耷拉著，她的脖頸上的淤青腫脹著——那個(gè)本該死去的獸人壓倒了她，攥住她的喉嚨，擰斷了她的頸椎。

“對(duì)不起，”我又一次抽泣著，彎曲著已是一塊死重的雙臂環(huán)抱著自己?！扒笄竽恪徫野伞?/p>

但她們永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)原諒我。

她們永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)說(shuō)話(huà)。我再也聽(tīng)不到她們的聲音，再也沒(méi)有卡利昂挑剔的評(píng)判，抑或是余在吟誦對(duì)神皇的贊美詩(shī)時(shí)柔弱而謙卑的語(yǔ)調(diào)。我再也不能在阿提卡第十五次拿自己擊敗混沌邪教冠軍的那一天逗我們開(kāi)心時(shí)與她同坐，或是聽(tīng)到三笠在羊皮紙帶上記敘對(duì)地上的祂的奉獻(xiàn)時(shí)發(fā)表的長(zhǎng)篇大論，再或是跪在莉莉馬拉姐妹旁聽(tīng)她解讀圣人們的神學(xué)著作。

而這都是我的錯(cuò)。

因?yàn)槲乙恢倍疾粔驈?qiáng)大，強(qiáng)大到能拯救她們，強(qiáng)大到能站穩(wěn)腳跟，與她們一同赴死。

血潮上漲起來(lái)，在我的夢(mèng)中一直如此。它一直漲到開(kāi)始滲入我破損的護(hù)甲，漲到包覆住我的護(hù)頸，觸及我的下巴，然后是嘴唇，然后——

然后……

是歌聲。

樂(lè)聲如某種實(shí)物般充滿(mǎn)了空氣，而我無(wú)從確切地找出它從何而來(lái)。它并非是贊美詩(shī)，甚至不是哥特語(yǔ)。它聞所未聞?dòng)謽O為古老，承載著這歌聲的嗓音在我周?chē)氖澜缰屑て鸺?xì)浪，伴著力量和某種更甚于美的事物的起伏而漲落。

那聲音和詞句——如若它當(dāng)真如此——穿過(guò)睡夢(mèng)的堅(jiān)壁滑進(jìn)我的心底。驅(qū)趕著我鼻腔中的血腥和舌面上的銅臭，而這血潮隨之退縮。這潮水轉(zhuǎn)而帶走了我死難的姐妹們，而即便我知道她們還會(huì)再次找上來(lái)，我也不由得苦澀地感激于能哪怕短暫地?cái)[脫她們。

黑暗吞噬了我，而我感激不盡。

———————————————————————————————————————

世界慢慢地回到了我的身旁。

由于長(zhǎng)時(shí)間維持著高腎上腺素并無(wú)視了傷口和淤青，我的全身都反饋著疼痛。尤其是我的左臂，在我終于設(shè)法睜開(kāi)眼睛時(shí)疼得我齜牙咧嘴。

房間里一團(tuán)漆黑，但有種我難以辨識(shí)的香氣。我感覺(jué)得到母親的手握在我的手中，而我輕捏著它，確定它就是……

不…….不是這樣。

我抬高視線(xiàn)，發(fā)現(xiàn)一只非人般優(yōu)美的蒼白的手正握著我的手，沿著連接它的手臂的曲線(xiàn)一路向上直到它的主人——伊莎萊那里，她正俯視著我，帶著某種在日出般的發(fā)絲的映襯下幾乎像是擔(dān)憂(yōu)的表情。

那外星的雙眼對(duì)我來(lái)講是陌生的，或者說(shuō)至少本該這樣。可我卻在其中，在那雙明亮的、紫藤色的、絕不會(huì)被錯(cuò)認(rèn)為人類(lèi)的眼睛中尋得了寬慰。

我把目光從她身上扯開(kāi)，掃過(guò)被汗液浸透的床單和一團(tuán)糟的毯子，隨后我單手把自己撐到倚在一直抓著的枕頭上，目光又回到她的身上。另一只手一直堅(jiān)決地呆在原本的地方，緊握著她的手。

“我睡著了？”我輕聲問(wèn)道，伊莎萊低聲附和著點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭。

“有一小會(huì)兒。”伊莎萊回答說(shuō)。

“你為什么在這？”我轉(zhuǎn)過(guò)頭去，環(huán)視著房間。

我渾身難受，我的身體還想要休息更久，可我的內(nèi)心躁動(dòng)不安，而我知道睡眠仍渴望找上我。

“為了死亡，Cre’yth，”她過(guò)了一會(huì)兒回答道，“我告訴過(guò)你了?！?/p>

“確實(shí)，”我抬頭瞥向她，看到她別過(guò)頭去，嘴唇沮喪地扭著。“你原本來(lái)到安菲特里亞尋死，可你現(xiàn)在仍在這里……你本可以在我熟睡時(shí)離開(kāi)，到城里創(chuàng)作你的畫(huà)廊，可你沒(méi)有?！蔽矣猛旰玫哪侵皇直郯炎约褐纹饋?lái)，轉(zhuǎn)身看向她的眼睛。“相反你和我呆在一起。”

“你在睡覺(jué)時(shí)哭出來(lái)了?！币辽R簡(jiǎn)單地回答。

“我夢(mèng)到了我的姐妹們?！?/p>

“將死？”

“已死?！?/p>

“嗯，”伊莎萊嘆了口氣，隨后把手從我的指間抽出來(lái)，在襲來(lái)的一陣短暫的懊悔后突然從座位上站起來(lái)，移到了我的身上。

我在她把我壓到床上時(shí)驚得猛吸了一小口氣，她的手按著我的肩膀，雙腿跨在我的髖部上，我想我在那一時(shí)間才意識(shí)到她仍赤裸著。她逐漸挺直身軀直到可能比我高出半個(gè)頭的程度，而我驚訝到動(dòng)彈不得。當(dāng)普瑞萊克斯的四顆蒼白衛(wèi)星的有害月光照亮她蒼白的皮膚時(shí)，我能感受到她身體的醉人的重量。光線(xiàn)映著她的發(fā)絲的樣子也很是奇怪……像在半夜時(shí)分被月光捕捉到的猩紅色地平線(xiàn)。

我抬頭看向她，氣息被卡在了肋骨附近的某處，她則以某種神秘莫測(cè)的表情迎接我的注視。

“你想要我嗎？”伊莎萊伸出手來(lái)，從我的胸口撫摸到下巴，然后是我的嘴唇?！澳呐挛沂钱愋巍呐挛沂悄愕臄橙?。”

“你不是我的敵人，伊莎萊，”我毫不猶豫地說(shuō)出這些，盡管這本應(yīng)是異端邪說(shuō)，我卻知道這是真的。

“你何以知曉？”她俯下身子，她的頭發(fā)在我的臉上點(diǎn)下陣陣瘙癢的波紋。“我是靈族，一個(gè)騙子……更糟的是，我是黑暗靈族?！?/p>

“我就是知道?！彼龑?duì)此抬起眼眸。

“我是個(gè)新人，但不是傻子?！蔽覕嗳坏??！拔抑漓`族海盜和你這樣的純黑之物的區(qū)別，盡管我花了點(diǎn)時(shí)間才意識(shí)到這點(diǎn)。”我伸出那只完好的手臂，將指尖置于她的臉頰上，摸索著在那里找到的非人的優(yōu)雅曲線(xiàn)。

“那你從何得知我并非你的敵人？”伊莎萊的聲線(xiàn)繃緊了些，我能看到一絲微弱的威脅在她的眼后燃燒起來(lái)?！澳闳绾沃牢覜](méi)有欺騙你……我并非為了某些可怖的結(jié)局才救助你？”

我如何知道？我試圖抓緊那個(gè)詰問(wèn)，那個(gè)古怪而無(wú)端的問(wèn)題自從那次沐浴后就在我的腦海中漂蕩。我知道伊莎萊很危險(xiǎn)，危險(xiǎn)得難以置信，可我相當(dāng)肯定她不會(huì)危及我。

可如何？

在腦海的深處，一陣輕快的旋律向我傳來(lái)。

“因?yàn)槟愠杞o我聽(tīng)，”我輕柔地回答，伊莎萊則僵住了，她睜大雙眼，氣息以能聽(tīng)見(jiàn)的程度卡在了喉嚨里?！澳鞘悄悖粚?duì)么？在我的夢(mèng)境中……我聽(tīng)見(jiàn)了歌聲。”

“那——”

“那就是你。”

伊莎萊從我的身上甩開(kāi)腿下馬，然后朝著臥室門(mén)大步走去。

“等等！”我爬到膝蓋上，咒罵著這過(guò)緊的裙子，站起來(lái)想跟上她并發(fā)誓要找到什么我能穿的上的東西。

明顯地，我的雙腿不在狀態(tài)。

我的雙腳幾乎還沒(méi)落地，身體的重量就壓了上去，同時(shí)肌肉以最激烈的手段抗議著——它們完全罷工了，剎那間，我看見(jiàn)了地板出于我膽敢在這時(shí)候起身而直沖過(guò)來(lái)狠揍我的臉的景象……

而伊莎萊就在這，像一道蒼白的閃電般，她的雙臂從我身下滑過(guò)，摟住我的腰，把我完好的手臂拉到她的肩膀上。當(dāng)她把我拉近并站起來(lái)，將我的大部分重量分擔(dān)到自己身上時(shí)，她柔軟的紅發(fā)灑落在我的身上。

“小心，Cre’yth，”伊莎萊的聲線(xiàn)低沉而憂(yōu)慮。“你還身負(fù)重傷，你的軀體為了讓你如此快速地移動(dòng)而受罪了太久。”

她攙著我走回床邊并低身把我放回去，隨著我的腦袋躺上枕頭，我那尖叫著的身軀似乎解脫地長(zhǎng)出了一口氣。

“看見(jiàn)沒(méi)？”我有些微弱地笑著，在她小心翼翼地把我放回床上時(shí)將我的手放到她的手上。“你不是我的敵人。”

伊莎萊用鼻子輕哼了一聲，那悶悶不樂(lè)的惱火的聲音讓我笑了出來(lái)，終于，她搖搖頭站了起來(lái)。

“或許你是對(duì)的，”她平靜地承認(rèn)道?！暗蛟S不是，我只知道我不想讓你死，亞歷桑德拉……我就知道這點(diǎn)。”

“這種感覺(jué)是相互的，”我回答道，承認(rèn)了自己小小的異端行徑。

“那我們可真是相配，”伊莎萊冷笑道?！澳?，一名教團(tuán)的修女，和我，一個(gè)科摩羅的巫靈……在其他的任何情況下都會(huì)試圖互相殘殺?！?/p>

“令人惱火地講，我很確信你能贏下那場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)斗，”我以同樣干巴巴的語(yǔ)氣回敬，而這讓她笑出聲來(lái)。

她轉(zhuǎn)身看了我一會(huì)兒，隨后俯身拉過(guò)被子蓋在我身上。

“我給你拿些水來(lái)，”伊莎萊輕聲說(shuō)，“然后我就會(huì)離開(kāi)這座尖塔。”

聽(tīng)她說(shuō)這些話(huà)，我的心一下子跌進(jìn)了谷底，而這明顯在我臉上表現(xiàn)了出來(lái)，因?yàn)樗o了我一個(gè)安心的微笑。

“是去拿補(bǔ)給，”她澄清道，“然后我就會(huì)回來(lái)?！?/p>

“答應(yīng)我，”我伸手，這次是兩只一起，強(qiáng)行驅(qū)動(dòng)我淤腫并幾無(wú)知覺(jué)的左臂抓住她的手，纏繞著對(duì)方的手指。“答應(yīng)我你會(huì)回來(lái)。”

“靈族的話(huà)對(duì)人類(lèi)來(lái)講有什么意義？”她漫不經(jīng)心地問(wèn)道。

“你的話(huà)對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)有意義。”

有那么一瞬間，我以為她會(huì)在我這么說(shuō)時(shí)抽身而退。她的雙眼只睜大了一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)，而我能感到一陣突如其來(lái)的緊繃感像微波一樣滾過(guò)她全身。

“我保證會(huì)回來(lái)，”伊莎萊輕聲說(shuō)道，隨后附身，再次將嘴唇貼向我的額頭?！艾F(xiàn)在休息吧，Cre’yth?！?/p>

我點(diǎn)頭躺了回去，滿(mǎn)足于她的對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)已經(jīng)是最好的回復(fù)，并相信她會(huì)信守承諾把自己帶回來(lái)。我甚至不確定她會(huì)回來(lái)這點(diǎn)為什么如此重要，但我就是知道這點(diǎn)。當(dāng)她轉(zhuǎn)身打開(kāi)房門(mén)并要離開(kāi)房間時(shí)，我能清楚地看到她的后身，一個(gè)想法出現(xiàn)在我的腦海里，并以問(wèn)題的形式脫口而出。

“你為什么一直光著身子？”我迷迷糊糊地問(wèn)道，片刻后才意識(shí)到自己是大聲發(fā)問(wèn)的，她帶著困惑的微笑轉(zhuǎn)過(guò)身來(lái)。

“因?yàn)?，”她回答說(shuō)，把雙手放在髖部上，“我光著的時(shí)候看上去最好，不是嗎？”

好吧……我無(wú)法反駁這一點(diǎn)。

?

原文：

“This wasn’t what I wanted!”

I screamed the words through a torn throat, raw from screaming the same words at the veiled blackness around me. The charnel stink of copper filled my nostrils and coated my tongue with an abattoir-slick patina of rust.?

My armor hung heavy around me, its power core long dead and the gleaming gold and silver-lavender etchings were corroded to nothing. Even the matte black thermogenic sealant was scraped away to reveal bare, cracked ceramite.

Another few steps carried me away from the advancing horde, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough because I would never and could never escape them.?

I wasn’t permitted to escape them, because they had not escaped… none of them.

“PLEASE!” The word ripped its way out of my throat as I staggered back. “I… forgive me…”

I dropped to my knees, too tired to continue, too tired to run anymore as the figures closed into a damning circle around me.

“Please, Sisters,” I sobbed bitterly, “please forgive me…”

They never did. They never admonished nor forgave, neither accused nor relieved.

They just stared.

Their bodies were ruined, but they stared nonetheless. Their armor was cracked and split under the weight of a thousand Orkish axes, their bones were broken, their limbs pulped, skulls shattered, and blood poured endlessly from wide rents in ceramite.

As always, they looked as I remembered them last. I remember the way Kalion’s headless body slumped out of the grip of an Ork Nob as it crushed her skull. I remember how Attica screamed her defiance as she was buried under a dozen of the hooting bastards, her shrieks turning to wet, burbling noises as they hacked her apart.?

And poor Sister Yu, the youngest of us, even younger than me. This was her first battle as a fully-fledged sister of the Order of the Radiant Wisteria. It should have been glorious, and it should not have ended so quickly for her, with her ribcage blown out by a lucky shot from an Ork Shoota.?

Sister Kassiter stared at me, her head hanging limp, her neck a swollen bruise from where the Ork who should have been dead had borne her down, gripped her by the throat, and snapped her spine.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed again, curling my heavy, dead-weight arms around myself. “Please… forgive me…”

But they would never forgive me.

They would never speak either. I would never hear their voices again, not Kalion’s critical remarks, or Yu’s soft, unassuming lilt as it rose in praise of the God-Emperor during hymnals. I would never sit with Attica again as she loudly regaled us for the fifteenth time about the day she bested the champion of a chaos cult, or hear Mikasa speak the litanies of command as she scribed devotions to Him On Earth on strips of parchment, nor would I kneel beside Sister Lillimara and listen to her interpret the theological writings of the Saints.

And it was my fault.

Because I had not been strong enough, not strong enough to save them, nor strong enough to stand my ground and die with them.

The tide of blood rose, as it always did in my dreams. It rose until began seeping into my damaged armour, until it crested my gorget and reached my chin, then my lips, and-

And…?

There was singing.

Music filled the air like a physical force and I couldn’t properly account for where it was coming from. It was not a hymn, it wasn’t even in Gothic. It was new and so, so very old, and the voice that carried the song made the world around me ripple as it rose and fell with strength and something so much greater than beauty.

The sound and words, if that is what they were, slipped through the walls of sleep to my mind, and chased the smell of blood from my nose and the copper from my tongue as the tides began to recede it. In turn, those tides carried with them my dead sisters, and even though I knew they would find their way back to me, I found myself bitterly thankful to be free of them for even a short while.

Blackness swallowed me, and I was grateful.

———————————————————————————————————————

The world came slowly back to me.

My entire body reported the aches and pains of a long time spent riding a high of adrenaline and ignoring my wounds and bruises. My left arm, especially, was little more than a mass of agony that made me grimace as I finally managed to peel open my eyes.

The room was dark, but there was a scent to it that I couldn’t quite place. I felt my mother’s hand in mine, and I squeezed it softly to reassure myself that-

No… that’s not right.

I raised my gaze and found a pale hand, inhumanly graceful, holding mine, and followed the curve of the arm it was attached to up until I reached its owner, Isarae, who was looking down at me with an expression almost like concern framed by straight sunrise locks.

Those alien eyes were strange to me, or they should have been at least. Yet I found comfort in them, in those bright, wisteria eyes that could never be mistaken for human.

Tearing my eyes from hers, I glanced around myself to find sweat-soaked sheets and mussed blankets, then turned back to her as I nestled back against the pillow I’d been clutching to myself with one hand. The other hand remained steadfastly where it was, gripping hers.

“Did I fall asleep?” I asked softly, and Isarae made a quiet hum as she nodded.

“For a little while,” Isarae replied.

“Why are you here?” I turned from her and stared across the room.?

My body ached, and it wanted more rest, but my mind was restless and I knew slumber would be long in coming for me.

“To die,?Cre’yth,” she answered after a moment. “I told you.”

“Precisely,” I glanced up at her and found her turning away from me, her lips twisting in frustration. “You came to Amphitria to die, but you’re still here… you could have gone out into the city and created your gallery any time while I slept, but you didn’t.” I propped myself up on my good arm and turned to meet her eyes. “Instead you stayed with me.”

“You cried out in your sleep,” Isarae said simply.

“I was dreaming of my sisters.”

“Dying?”

“Already dead.”

“Hmm,” Isarae sighed, then pulled her hand free of my fingers, and felt a stab of remorse that lasted only a moment before she was suddenly up from her seat and moving over me.

I let out a small, sharp breath of surprise as she pressed me to the bed, her hands on my shoulders, her legs slung over me to straddle my hips, and in that moment I think it only just caught up to me that she was still naked. I was too surprised to move as she rose to her full height, maybe half a head taller than me. I could feel the intoxicating weight of her body as the poison moonlight of Praelex’s four wan satellites lit her pale skin with a radiant glow. The way the light played off of her hair, too, was strange… a scarlet horizon captured in the middle of the night by the light of the moon.

My breath was stuck somewhere near my ribs as I stared up at her, and she met my gaze with an inscrutable expression.

“Do you want me?” Isarae reached out to play her fingers across my chest up to my chin, then to my lips. “Even though I am xenos… even though I am the enemy.”

“You’re not my enemy, Isarae,” I said the words without thinking, and as heretical as they might have been I knew they were true.

“How can you know?” She leaned down, her hair falling across my face in tickling waves. “I am Aeldari, a deceiver… worse, I am?Druchi.”

“I know.” She raised an eyebrow at that.

“I'm a novice, not an idiot” I said flatly. "I know the difference between a corsair and a true dark one like you, even if it took me a little while to realise it.” I reached out with my good arm and put the tips of my fingers to her cheek, tracing the fine, inhuman lines I found there.

“Then how do you know I am not your enemy?” Isarae’s voice grew tight, and I could see the faint hint of threat burning behind her eyes. “How do you know I am not lying to you… that I did not save you for some terrible ends?”

How did I know? I tried to cling to that line of questioning, that odd, idle query that had been drifting through my mind since the bath. I knew Isarae was dangerous, impossibly dangerous, but I knew with just as much certainty that she was not dangerous to me.

But how?

In the back of my mind, a lilting tune reached out to me.

“Because you sang to me,” I replied in a soft voice, and Isarae stiffened, her eyes widening and her breath catching audibly in her throat. “It was you, wasn’t it? In my dream… I heard singing.”

“That-”

“It was you.”

Isarae slung her legs off of me, dismounting and slipping off of the bed to stalk away towards the bedroom door.

“Wait!” I scrambled to my knees, cursing the too-tight dress, and vowing to find something that could fit me as I stood to follow her.

My legs were, apparently, not in the mood.

My feet had barely struck the floor and my weight settled on them when the muscles protested in the strongest possible terms by giving out entirely, and for a moment I was treated to a view of the floor rushing up to neatly clobber me in the face for my hubris of daring to stand when-

Isarae was there, like a flash of pale light, slipping her arms under mine and around my waist and pulling my good arm over her shoulder. Her soft, red hair spilled over me as she pulled me close and stood, lifting me to my feet and taking the greater share of my weight on herself.

“Be careful,?Cre’yth,” Isarae’s voice was low and concerned. “You are still battered, and your body has suffered too long for you to be moving about so quickly.”

She walked me back to the bed and lowered me onto it, and my screaming body seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as I laid my head back on the pillows.

“See?” I laughed a little weakly as I placed my hand over hers where she was carefully settling me onto the bed. “You’re not my enemy.”

Isarae made a soft snort through her nose, a sullen, irritated sound that made me smile, and finally, she just shook her head and stood.

“Perhaps you are right,” she admitted quietly. “But perhaps not, all I know is that I do not want you to die, Alessandra… I know that much.”

“The feeling is mutual,” I replied, admitting my own small heresy.

“What a pair we are, then,” Isarae chuckled dryly. “You, a sister of a holy order, and I, a Wych of Commorragh… in any other situation we would be trying to kill each other.”

“Galling as this is to say, I’m certain you’d win that fight,” I replied in an equally arid tone, and that actually got a burst of laughter from her.

She turned to regard me for a few quiet moments before leaning down and pulling the covers over me.

“I will get you some water,” Isarae said softly, “and then I will be leaving the spire.”

I felt my heart plummet to my stomach at her words, and it must have shown on my face because she gave me a reassuring smile.

“For supplies,” she clarified, “then I will return.”

“Promise me,” I reached out, with both hands this time, forcing my bruised and mostly-numb left arm to move as I grasped her hand, twining her fingers with mine. “That you’ll come back, promise me.”

“What meaning has the word of an Aeldari to a human?” she asked blithely.

“Your word means something to me.”

For a moment, I thought she was going to pull away when I said that. Her eyes widened just a little, and I could feel a sudden tension roll up her body like a subtle wave.

“I promise to come back,” Isarae said quietly, then leaned in and pressed her lips to my forehead again. “Now rest,?Cre’yth,”

I nodded as I laid back, satisfied that her word was the best I was going to get, and trusting that she would hold to it enough to bring her back to me. I wasn’t even certain why it was so important that she come back, but I knew that it was. As she turned to open the door and leave the room, I got quite a nice view of her backside, and a notion occurred to me that fell out of my mouth in the form of a question.

“Why are you always naked?” I asked blearily, only realising an instant later that I actually asked it out loud as she turned to me with a bemused smile on her lips.

“Because,” she replied, planting hands on her hips, “I look best naked, do I not?”

Well… I could not argue with that.