Values

Lyric blinked up at him, her mind still sluggish from sleep, but his words cut through the haze like a blade. She pushed herself up on her elbows, wincing as the movement tugged at her half-healed wounds. The firelight made his expression hard to read, but she could hear it—*the crack in his voice, the weight of it.*

Her fingers tightened in the blankets as she swallowed past the lump in her throat.

I didn’t have to know them, she said softly. They were running. They were scared. That was enough.

She exhaled, shifting so she could sit properly. It felt wrong to be curled up in warmth while he stood there, tense and torn between anger and something far worse.

And my daughter? Tibs, I did this *for* her. What kind of world am I leaving her if I let fear stop me from doing what’s right? If I look away, if I pretend it’s not happening, how can I tell her to be brave?

She shook her head, voice rough with exhaustion and something deeper, something that ached.

I can’t do that. I won’t.

@Tiberius Umbra