my heart was never pure; any

[Osyva]

Osyva has seen too much in her lifetime to ever hope to feel her childhood innocence again. She has felt too much pain to ever hope to feel anything but numbness again. Still, she dreams of a time long ago - of memories drenched in sunlight. She can hear her mother’s voice. “Be safe, Osyva” “I know, mother!” she’d squeak in reply as she set off for her father’s home. Her mother would follow at a distance, but Osyva was never aware. She’d been so sheltered then. Now, no one watches her. She has been alone for quite some time, mostly due to her own lack of motivation. She’d abandoned her father’s home for the enemy. She’d followed Straia to the Chamber. She’d slept beneath the jagged pines as she once had the Mother Tree. She’d watched the war rage from the sidelines. Violent magic instilled in her the idea she’d had all along since her father was snapped from the hills of the Gates. He was dead. He could not have survived. But this time, no tears fell down her golden cheeks. Only fire and magic flashed in the reflection of her glassy eyes. Osyva has never been anything more than a witness. Perhaps, if magic had not killed her sire, or turned her mother into a fish, things would have turned out differently.