Stone let Aspel’s story and advice be absorbed in her mind before answering her question. Surely, she hadn’t thought the sentinel’s life was sugar and rainbows, but didn’t spare much thought. The young girl had figured most adults went through life being confident, yet every time Aspel had shown some fragment of her past, Stone became less and less certain of that, and today, her view became changed all the more. Unsupportive parents, huh?
The silence would soon become inappropriately long even for simple word digestion, and finally replied.
“I’m worried… someday, I’m going to die. Not getting old. But something will happen to me. I’ll be rotting away in a dungeon, or sentenced to death, or become monster chow, and Audren won’t have anything left. Tilda only takes care of him because I pay her for laundry. God knows Mom doesn’t want to do anything but guzzle the drink. It’s up to me, and…”
‘And, I hate it. I hate that it’s up to me, and only me,’ were the words that were on the verge of slipping out of Stone’s mouth. But Faram knows she would never say them aloud. Not in this life.