Chapter 7

Astria woke suddenly in the dim candlelight, something had forcefully ripped her from the sweet bliss of dreaming, though she wasn’t able to recall the cause. The room was eerie silent as she stretched in the oversized feather bed, moaning softly as if to fill void she felt within the air. Normally she would hear the soft snoring that came with the rise and fall of her mother’s chest as she slept, and yet as she slowly began to open her eyes, the only sound that enchanted the room was her own breathing and the soft hiss of the wind as it seeped through the slightly ajar window.

“Mother?” she called, her eyes scanning the darkness as her heart began to race; her fear of being left alone now prominent and alive within her mind.

Astria crawled out of her bed, quickly tugging on her boots and rushing towards the window. Briefly catching a glimpse of her mother as she turned right into a small ally beside two vast taverns, accompanied by a stranger t