Artemis barely registered the destruction of the island as she gripped Nura's armor, body held low against the gryphon's back. Her knuckles were white and her teeth were clenched – every muscle was taut with frantic energy. But she couldn't move. She could barely [i]think[/i]. Her thoughts raced, too quickly to keep track of, as Artemis flew through the sky. Something was building inside her. Some horrid truth, too dangerous to recognize, too [i]painful[/i] to look at, was rearing up inside her, pulling years of hidden emotions with it. 

She barely registered when Nura landed on familiar, ashen ground. She stumbled off, inelegantly leaving Nura to squawk and chirp at her. The gryphon was obviously confused – she could sense some change, some foreign energy around her new rider. Artemis just tossed the Witch's staff at her taloned feet. Nura chirped in surprise, sniffing the staff only to dart her eyes back up to watch Artemis. Her feathers ruffled underneath her heavy plate armor, distressed sounds escaping her.

Artemis was pacing. Her heart hammered in her throat, her chest fluttering up and down like her very skin was struggling to contain her. Oseely's words echoed again and again in her head. 

She had too much energy. She was too hot. She was freezing cold. With every step she took, saplings sprouted from the barren, charred earth, only to curl and blacken, smoke rising from their dying bodies. Magic sparked in her blood, uncontrollable, as the two Lords' runes glowed fervently bright on her hands. She clenched and unclenched her fists. In a flash of motion, she reached up and ripped the rabbit mask from her face and tossed it to the ground. Embers sparked into existence, following her hand, only to flicker and fade in the night in the next instant.

Losing the mask's energy didn't seem to calm Artemis at all. She was still restless, her breath coming out in frantic puffs as her fists clenched and unclenched in rapid succession. She just felt clumsier now, more cumbersome and less focused.

Artemis remembered the plague – the [i]Climbing Vine[/i], they'd called it. She remembered the panic that'd seeped through the valley when more and more people began dying from it. She remembered being quarantined from her parents when they fell to it. She remembered how her heart stopped when her brother caught it. 

Idris' face flashed in her mind. Not as he'd been in life – no, Artemis saw him ashen and dull eyed, blindly telling her how much faith he had in her to do a job she was never meant for.

Her warm, loving, trusting little brother. The plague had taken him from her – it had stolen her life just as it'd stolen his.

Something nudged into her back and Artemis spun in a blur of motion, rounding on Nura, who immediately flinched back. The gryphon had a worried look in her eye, the staff held hopefully in her beak. Artemis wanted to feel guilty. But she was too overwhelmed by her own emotions to feel any more for Nura. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes and clenched her teeth. This was too much. She lowered her hands to find them wet with fresh tear stains. She didn't even know. But [i]if[/i] –

She looked up over Nura's armored head to see a familiar back – Oseely. He was standing in a tree on the edge of the waste. Suddenly her energy had a focus.

Artemis walked around Nura without glancing at her and began marching towards the Lord of Flame. Without slowing, she bent to scoop up the rabbit mask as she passed, frantic embers dancing off of her skin. Saplings were born and killed with every silent footstep. The barren trees themselves seemed to sway with her movement. Nura chirped around the staff in her mouth before jumping to follow nervously after her rider.

[color=darkturquoise]"[i]Oseely[/i]!"[/color] came her ragged shout when she finally drew close. There was something desperate and grieving in her voice as it broke over his name. She came to a stop several yards away from his tree, looking up at him with bright, wet eyes. [color=darkturquoise]"Oseely, you tell me why I'm here!"[/color] For all its force, it wasn't a command – it was a [i]plea[/i]. [color=darkturquoise]"Why am [i]I[/i] here? You said that [i]thing[/i],"[/color] she lifted a hand to point to the dragon, shaking itself out of the mountain, [color=darkturquoise]"stole lives from my world."[/color] She lowered her hand and looked at him. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. She had to force the words into the world. [color=darkturquoise]"[i]Which ones[/i]?"[/color] They were hushed. But her voice grew again. [color=darkturquoise]"The ones closest to me?"[/color] Burning tears were starting to trail down her cheeks as she struggled to speak. [color=darkturquoise]"Am I here because the dragon drained the life from my family? My [i]Valley[/i]?"[/color] She dared him to tell her the truth – why it was that her entire world had come crashing down. [color=darkturquoise]"[i]Did it take my brother from me?[/i]"[/color] The person standing before him wasn't Artemis. It was the girl she'd abandoned with her family. Still grieving. Still in pain. She couldn't keep from holding her halting breath as she looked up at Oseely. 

Still waiting for answers.