(Untitled)

[incassielsname]

Phedre is gone.

I know it, as well as I know my own self, as well as I know her.

I am woken by a rumble in the ground, something utterly foreign to me, and this combined with the fact that my bed is empty beside me fills me with nothing but pure, unadulterated terror.

She is gone. It is though she just left in the night, gone elsewhere to

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[travelingprince]

I had just gotten dressed, having already been wakened by the rumbling of the earth, when I heard Joscelin at the door. I opened it at once, and realised at once that only one thing could have caused his striken expression.

Something had happened to Phedre. I knew it as surely as if I had seen it through the dromonde.

"What's happened?" I asked without preamble.

[incassielsname]

"Is she here?" I demand, trying desperately not to slip into hysterics. I have been calm through everything else, I cannot possibly turn into a lunatic now. "Is she here?" I pace back and forth on his doorstep, hands balled into angry fists at my sides.

[travelingprince]

"Of course she isn't here," I said, my heart sinking. If Joscelin had been driven to look here for her, I knew it couldn't be good. I had never seen the Cassiline so unhinged. "Are you certain she's just not gone out?"

[incassielsname]

If she is not there, well, then it is the worst. It is worse than I possibly could have imagined.

"No," I say, "no, she hasn't. She couldn't have. She -- it is not like her. She would not. She--" I press my hands to my eyes, trying to center myself, trying to not let this get out of hand so quickly.

"She is out there somewhere, Hyacinthe. If she is not with me, and not with you, then she is simply not here."

[travelingprince]

It was not until much later that evening that we stopped again, when the sun had gone down so far that there was nothing left to see by, with the trees overhead blocking out nearly all of the moon- and star-light. My arm throbbed and ached hotly, and Joscelin looked nearly mad. "We should stop for the night," I suggested with extreme reluctance. "We won't find her in the dark."

[incassielsname]

I sigh, stopping in my tracks. It has been a long day, a trying day, and I do not know how we've continued on so long. At every rustle of the leaves, I hear something, a voice hear, the hiss of a blade there, and I wonder if someone is out there, or if it is the madness again.

I wish we'd brought a torch, something with which to make fire so we can carry on. But that would be just as dangerous; we'd gotten lost enough times in the light that I can only imagine what may befall us in the pitch black.

"I suppose you're right," I say wearily, shoudlers sagging in defeat.

[travelingprince]

I slung my pack off my back and stretched my arm, which was growing stiff. I now regretted not taking Joscelin's advice to turn back and have it examined, though it was too late now and would be pointless.

"Perhaps Phedre is not alone," I suggested. "If there are others so afflicted, she could have come across them while out here." It was a comforting thought, so I entertained it, whether it had any possibility of being true or not.

[incassielsname]

I slowly slide my sword from my back, leaning heavily against it as I survey the area, looking for the best place to set up camp.

"I can only hope that is the case," I say wearily. "I do not like thinking that our searching is for naught, but knowing she found others..." It is better, at least, than considering the alternative.