He can't keep doing this. He comes in here and kicks everyone out of the cell and halls, closing both heavy doors so no one can hear whatever it is he's doing down here. I don't know what he does, can't feel it with whatever barrier goes up around her whenever he's with her alone. It's like an invisible wall that I can't get past. I can feel her heartbeat now, still weak and mysteriously still beating.

I would've thought she'd be gone by now – and it's not that I necessarily hoped for it, but she's getting worse every day and death would be a mercy.

As soon as the second door that leads to the stairs shuts, I can no longer feel her. I stay awake for the long minutes that pass until I can feel her again. Sometimes I think that perhaps her heart actually does stop, and other times I have a sinking stomach feeling that tells me it's something worse. I tried getting her to tell me what he does, but she's kept her mouth keenly shut ever since the first time he kicked us out. I can't even tell where her memory is at anymore, and that scares me more than anything. If she can't remember who she is, then they could reinvent her entirely and turn her to their side. She could be their most valuable weapon to use against Darius and the others.

Then there's reason number two as to why I don't sleep. The water wolf. He hasn't been back since the last time – and no, I don't know if it even has a gender. I was too frozen in fear to look. I don't know how much time has passed since then, only that it's felt like several days. Time down here is absolutely lost. I often think that every session marks a day, but those can have gaps in between them that range from large amounts of time, to entirely too short of ones. Then I tried marking them by whenever Arkyn kicked us out, but those quickly became after every session or every other one. There's no pattern as to when he comes, he just does.

The guard closes the door behind me, leaving me to stand in the middle of my dark room. Honestly, I'm scared to move. I don't have the same feeling that I did when the wolf first showed up, but that doesn't mean that it's not lurking in the corner, waiting to pounce the second I move an inch. My chest feels like it's closing in, my hands start to sweat, and still, nothing.

Sometimes I scare myself shitless. I'll shift slightly on my pile of hay, causing a few of them to poke me in the legs or the stomach and I'll jolt upright thinking it's one of the predator's teeth sinking in.

Taking a deep calming breath, I lean forward so that my tense legs are forced to catch me before I face plant. They don't. Instead, my feet stay strictly planted and I end up having to use my arms to catch me. Two things I learned from that. One: I need to come up with better ideas on how to control my fear. Two: I don't have the arm or core strength to catch myself properly. I'm fairly sure my forehead is going to have a bump blooming on its center in a moment or two. Not to mention that my nose will either be bruised or have some nice red scratches for the idiot guards outside to make fun of.
Oh, and my hands are definitely rebroken.

I stay laying on the ground on my stomach, too tired and lazy and withering in too much pain to really move to the pointless haystack. It's not even a pile anymore, just scattered pieces of straw. I may be able to roll to the wall, but that still requires energy, and I don't have any. Let alone the motivation to do so. My back hurts, my stomach is empty and shriveling, and my hands still shake from the injuries, but at least I've gotten used to most of the pain by now. Although thinking about it now, they'll probably be barking by the next session, and I barely have any magic left in me to keep her alive, so sparing my pain is out of the question.

My dress is nothing more than a large rag covering a few pieces of bones and atrophied muscles. It's taking me longer to walk up the fifteen or so stairs than it did before, and soon enough the guard might just have to carry me up to my cell. I hate the idea, but what more could I do when raising my hand alone would take every fiber of my being? I'd be a useless thing...

Saints that thought turned.

I hate the idea of me being nothing more than a lifeless body being carried from one room to another. I hate the idea of not being able to do much for the girl now. If I am to keep her whole, then I need something – anything to keep myself up, and right now...well, I suppose I'll have to pray. A lot.

I turn my head to the side, moving my arms so that they rest beneath my head. That's about as much effort as I'm willing to give into my sleepy comfort. That, and I'm going to need every ounce of energy to heal the girl. I'm slacking and the guards have been eyeing me which means they're going to start punishing me for the slack sooner or later. I'm not looking forward to it.

There's a faint noise that has my eyes bursting open. I look to the door for any sign that it's just one of the guards shifting by the door.
No luck.

The sound doesn't come again, and that's not necessarily comforting. I feel frozen, like no matter how hard I scream in my mind for my finger to move, it doesn't. My legs don't listen to my mind's order, nor my arms, toes, neck, or any other part of me. I don't know why, only that it's that paralyzing fear I only ever get in the most random of moments. This isn't necessarily a random moment, but it's still a bad time for it to go off.

This stupid shit of a brain cell isn't working. Go figure.

When I finally regain control of my limbs, I take a deep breath and slowly begin to raise my head off of my arms while keeping my eyes glued to the ground. That turns out to be just as bad, and I find myself staring at two large florescent-lit paws. The nails are retracted, but I know how quickly they could slide out. One move and those things will be digging into my cheek. I could die here and now, but that would leave the girl alone without someone to heal her, and that's not an option.

I want to touch it, the paw. It's shiny and still looks like there are small pieces of fallen stars in it. It's beautifully dangerous and I would touch it if my hands weren't frozen again. Heathens my head is really confusing me.

Don't touch it, it's dangerous.

Touch it. It's shiny.

Mentally slapping myself for being such a wuss, I slowly put the palm of my hand on the damp, cold stone trying not to wince too loudly, and push myself off of the ground. Sliding my knees beneath me, I don't move to stand up all the way. I could stand, as I would still need to look up to see his face, but I'm good here on the ground. For now.

His eyes are still an unbelievable shade of purple, and I know better than to allow them to entrance me, but they still do so. I don't break his stare, even when they lower to my eye level as he lays down himself. How strange it is to see the water move in such a way that looks like he's actually covered in fur. There are shadows and highlights where there would normally be if a wolf were in the sun, and the so-called fur looks as if there's a phantom wind blowing. It's supernaturally beautiful, and despite the racing pace of my heart, I'm oddly at ease with the magical mammal.

His eyes stay on mine, though they seem to lose their sharpness. The liquid that makes up his entirety seems to settle as well. It's like it depicts his emotions. When he's angry the water swirls and bucks as it did in the ballroom, and now that he's at odd ease, it moves more like a flowing river. Smooth and calm.

He lowers his snout to the ground and I flinch away my hands from my knees. I need my hands to heal, I don't necessarily need my legs.
He doesn't go to bite me, instead he touches the ground once with the tip of his nose. I keep my eyes on the ground, watching as the spot where his nose touched lights up to his florescent blue and then spreads smoothly down a single path. I watch it curve seamlessly up and down and around, following the trail as the water slowly begins to form letters, and then a word, and then a sentence.

I am here to help not harm

I look to the wolf, then back down to the message, and back to the wolf. He doesn't move, doesn't do much more than stare back down at me. I stare back, waiting for it to do more – to explain further why in heathens it would be here to help me. I could speak back, but how do I know that it will understand me? How do I know that it's really here to help, and it's not just one of my dreams that gives me false hope? I could wake up any second to find only darkness surrounding me. I could wake up to the sound of the guards opening my door to tell me that another session is going to happen. I could wake up, or I could already be awake.

"Is this real?" I ask, barely speaking in a faint whisper.

He still doesn't move, but movement catches my eye and I find that the letters from the message are shifting to form new ones.

See for yourself

Yeah, well, I do see it, I'm just not so sure about the believing part. I suppose there's really only one way to tell, and I'm not liking the idea that popped up in my head. Still, if it's a dream then I have nothing to lose, but if it isn't...perhaps me and the girl may last a little longer.

Shakingly, I raise my hand from my lap and slowly reach out towards the wolf. He still doesn't move, keeping his eyes on my own. The latter isn't exactly comforting, but I suppose making eye contact is better than him pinning his gaze onto my hand. If he did, then I'd probably pull it back before he could snap it off.

I stop when I get close enough for him to lunge, biting my lip as I send a hundred prayers that I don't regret this. He looks to my hand then, and for a split second I think that he really is going to snap his teeth, but he doesn't. Instead, his eyes close, the water of his body slowing even more, and then leans his head forward until his cheek rests in my palm. The breath I had been holding falls out and I can't help but gawk.

"Saints," I breathe, running my hand up and down from his ear to the end of his cheekbone.
The water doesn't even wet my hand when I remove it, and it feels smoother than a baby's bottom. I should know, it wasn't too long ago that I assisted Anevay Siscilla in delivering the Queen's daughter. The Princess was the most precious and delicate thing I've ever held, and it pained me to hand her over, as I wanted nothing more than to keep her swaddled in my arms. I never really harbored the thought of having my own children, and with everything that has happened since, it seems an unlikely thing to come. Or it did.

"Who are you?"

The wolf opens its eyes but makes no move to pull back. I'm thankful, as I can't help but keep touching it to make sure it's real.

The letters move, reforming into the words:

I have no name
I simply am

I look back to him, then remember where I am and who's outside the door. It's made of solid iron, but that doesn't mean that there's not some kind of hole or crack for someone to listen through. If I'm going to speak, I can't have anyone walking in.

As if reading my mind, I watch as some of the water from the wolf's chest leaves its form and flows to the ground. It moves like some kind of organism, slithering its way along the stones until it reaches the door where it then expands and moves upward and outward until it's covering the entirety of the door. The water settles, then it begins to make slight popping sounds as it turns to solid ice.

"I suppose that's one way to do it," I say in my normal tone, though still keeping it slightly low. "I can't very well call you 'I am,' now can I? How about...Kallisté. Yes, Kallisté fits nicely. Well then, Kallisté, why is it you're here?"

The time is near for my Omega to rise

"Omega? You mean the female dominant of your pack?"

We are her procreation

"She made you? But that makes your Omega the girl. Why haven't you saved her?"

The Alpha forbade it as it was the Omega's command

"Alpha? The golden-eyed wolf. He's the Alpha?"

The first of our kind
The Promised Entity.

"Why would she command you not to save her."

She commanded no such thing
We are to save her when the song sounds

"Why not?"

Strong we may be
but there are forces undiscovered that have better cards to play

I nod, knowing well and full that The Eternal must be the one with theses better cards she speaks of. "So you need my help to save her? How?"

You are not strong enough for the Omega's rise
We need more

"More? More people? But there's no one here but me, and last I checked, no one knows where we are."

Leave that to the Alpha
There's more to a song than just the chorus
and the bridge is nearly here

Bridge, song...this does sound an awful lot like the girl. She's spoken about a song, about how the sounds of her suffrage are the basis of her music. I first thought that she was going crazy, but you don't need the power to know she's spoken the truth. It's just a feeling you get when you know, and I know.

"So what is it you need of me?"

For now trust
And patience
They'll be here soon enough.

"They. Who?"

I'll return when the sun rises and sets with rations
For now gain rest
for the moon is waning
and we wait for the waxing

The sound of ice splintering echoes behind me and I spin around expecting to see one of the guards with his sword drawn and swinging down at me, but it's just the ice reforming back into water and falling to the ground with a splash and a ripple. Within seconds it disappears into nothing, and I turn back to the wolf only to find she's not there. Typical.