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The Innkeeper stalks off, grumbling under his breath. I wonder sadly if Karul finds me as distasteful as he seems to find everything here. Perhaps I no longer hold his interest, and that is why he insists upon separate bathing quarters.
But I remind myself our relationship is one of pretense and convenience. I cannot expect genuine affection; as the gulf between us widens, I must accept that whatever we once had is likely gone for good.
The baths are but a symptom of that hard truth.
Before bed, when I disrobe in front of him, he seems to no longer even enjoy the sight of my body, a thing he seemed to very much enjoy possessing only hours before. “Is there something wrong, my lord?”
“I told you never to call me that here.”
"I know something is really bothering you. Please, talk to me. I want to help."
“There is nothing to talk about. Go to sleep.”
He ruefully peels open the covers, and I slip beside him in the nude. I try to curl against him, but he refuses me even simple comfort.
I toss and turn for hours before I jolt awake to the sound of him crying out. He thrashes around violently, trapped in the throes of a nightmare. I grab his shoulder and shake him. "Karul, wake up!"
His eyes fly open, but they look right through me, glazed over with terror. Beads of sweat drip down his temples. I call his name again and again until, finally, he seems to register my presence. "What's wrong?" I ask gently.
He recoils from my touch, his lips curling in a snarl. "It's none of your business," he spits at me before storming out of the room.
Sitting there in stunned silence, I feel as though I have been struck. The harshness in his voice and eyes feels like a physical blow.
For a moment, I had allowed myself to believe we were growing close, that he was opening up to me. But his biting words are a harsh reminder that I am still nothing but a slave to him.
No matter how kind he can be, no matter the passion we've shared, there is an impenetrable wall around his heart that I cannot breach.
Tears burn my eyes as I curl up alone, realizing that I foolishly let myself fall for someone who will never love me back.
17
KARUL
“Not much longer, now, sir,” the driver announces.
I glower out the carriage window as we bump along the road, studiously avoiding looking at the one seated across from me. Ever since my damned nightmare at the inn, I've been unable to face her. Bad enough that I made a fool of myself waking up screaming and sweating - but did I really have to snap at her like that when she tried to comfort me?
Am I really so insufferable?
I know we must be getting close to her hometown based on the descriptions she shared during our journey here - her eyes lit up as she spoke of the babbling creek and old willow tree marking the village outskirts.
But as I take in the increasingly grim landscape outside - charred stumps beginning to replace the verdant forest - a sense of foreboding curdles in my gut. Jasmine seems to share my fear. Her shoulders tense as she leans closer to the glass.
"No, it can't be..." she murmurs, panic creeping into her voice as the carriage trundles over the crest of a hill. She gasps, hand flying to her mouth at the sight laid out before us. My heart drops into my boots.
When the carriage pulls into what used to be Jasmine's hometown, I'm struck speechless by the sight before me. Where a cheerful village should sit nestled in the valley, there is only a wasteland of ash and cinders.
Skeletal building frames rear up out of the destruction like the bones of some ancient beast. Jasmine lets out a low, keen, grief-stricken sound slicing to my core. Smoldering timber frames and piles of ash are all that remain of the simple thatch-roofed cottages.
The land looks almost unrecognizable compared to the bubbly descriptions Jasmine shared with me on the journey here. "No, no, no," Jasmine mumbles, staring out the window. “It can’t be…”
I follow her gaze and spot the first signs of destruction - a crumbling chimney and scorched frames of buildings. My stomach sinks.
She shakes her head in denial. "This can't be right. This can't be my home."
The carriage pulls into the center of town if you can even call this blasted wasteland that anymore. Jasmine releases a pained cry at the sight.
"No! It's...it's all gone," she whispers, hand flying to her mouth. Tears spill down her cheeks.
