Page 117 of The Ashpaw: Part One

Fern would almost assume it had been done on purpose to disorient her further, if not for the fact that Darion likely didn’t care enough to be that manipulative.

Adela was also gone, replaced by an attendant who had no tongue. And of course Fern could not ask why, or if it had been done to her recently, so there was no conversation there.

Even her wolf had gone silent, pouting in some recessed corner of her mind.

“You won’t embarrass me on the next full moon again, will you?”

She didn’t answer.

“Although I’ll probably still be here, anyway. Not like anyone would even be able to tell if I shifted or not.”

Fern lay on her back on the floor, singing to herself as her hands performed elaborate dances above her.

“She met him where the willows sway, and took his armored hand that day…”

There was a sound of raised voices outside of her room. It happened sometimes. She almost thought to ask them to quiet down, but they never listened to her anyway.

The door opened. She imagined it did that sometimes.

“At last his eyes met hers so true—”

“‘My heart,’ said he, ‘has been with you.’”

“You know it, then?” she asked without looking. There wouldn’t be anyone there, after all. “I had assumed Lurvekh wouldn’t know any human songs.”

“Most Lurvekh wouldn’t, but my mother used to sing that to me.”

The hallucination smelled real enough, further proof of her mind losing its edge. It lay on the floor beside her.

“And where did she learn it from? Her nursemaid?”

The hallucination sighed. “No, she was a Solvekh. Born and raised human outside of Millshire.”

Millshire… Fern had never been.

“What happened to her?”

There was a quiet pause before the hallucination spoke again. “She died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it was a very long time ago.”

It paused again.

“When was the last time you spoke to someone?”

Fern shrugged, humming and twirling her hands again. “I don’t know, I don’t have any more rocks.”

“Rocks? What…”

“Rocks. One a day, until Darion took them away,” she replied in a lyrical voice, similar to the melody she’d just been singing.

“Solas’s Hells, I didn’t know it had gotten this bad.”

The hallucination stood. Then it grabbed her hand to help her up, and she screamed, trying to slide away. The touch was almost burning, it was too much. More than she could handle.

“Fern!”