ELIA – Human World
Movement in the room woke her. She didn't open her eyes because she knew it was still night and the cave was always so dark anyway, there wasn't much point.
Her back was cold, lacking the great, steel heater of a body that usually warmed it. She rolled over to find Reth—but even as she moved she became aware of the straight, falsely plush mattress beneath her rather than the soft furs, the perfectly rectangular pillow under head rather than the stuffed pads they used in the cave, and every cell in her body screamed against what she remembered. When she reached out, there was no warm body, no depression in the bed next to her. Nothing.
No one.
"Oh, Reth," she whispered through lips pulled tight against tears that wanted to overwhelm her immediately. "Please, be safe. Please."
