Pinja anxiously peered out from between her arms. She was still so scared.

"Shh, you're safe," Millie cooed.

Outside hte room, Wulfsen gave Sileas a look. "She's still afraid?"

Sileas nodded sadly. "I think even I frightened her. Maybe if I go to see her alone tomorrow, she will talk to me."

"She was looking at me, I think I scared her." Wulfsen said. "She might talk to you..."

"I'll try tomorrow. For now, I have to find Oscar. And somehow make an apology to Yehudit."

"Hopefully he's next door." Wulfsen said.

"Hopefully so. It's far past time that he is asleep," Sileas fussed.

"Streetkids have regular bedtimes?" Wulfsen asked, heading for the room next door.

"No, but it's time he had some structure," Sileas replied. "It was the first rule Mama and Papa set down for me. A regular bedtime."

In reply to Millie (msg # 978):

Pinja shook as she tried to steady her breathing. She did not want to die anymore, but she hated what her life had become. Being terrified every time she was in the same room as a man, even when she knew he would not hurt her. Tears ran down her cheeks.

Millie lightly rubbed her back, humming softly.

Pinja flinched.

"Being touched hurts right now." She said quietly.

Millie withdrew her hand quickly. "My apologies."

"You were just trying to help."

Pinja drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. "He helped get me out of there but I'm afraid of him too."

"Sileas was frightened for nearly a year after she was attacked. She flinched or fled every time a man came near her. She was fine with the boys in her class, but men?"

"How did she stop it?" Pinja asked, pressing her chin into her knees.

"You're not going to like the answer, but a group effort from the family got her to leave the schoolhouse, and then she met Larrigan. It was magical, he knew everything to do to take care of her, and I won't say flashbacks went all the way away, but he knew how to get her through."

"My family wanted me to marry him. I probably died to them the moment I ran away, and they'll want even less to do with me after... this." Pinja shook her head. "I'll never get close to any man."

"They may not be blood relatives, but you have people here who care about you. In many ways, that makes them family." She almost added to never say never, but she wouldn't push. It was up to Pinja if she wanted to work past this and have a normal life.

Pinja shivered.

Difyr brought Ila into the room and had her sit down. "Millie? Would you be able to replace Ila's sleeve?" Difyr asked as she took out a potion for cleaning small wounds.

Difyr sorted through her supplies, hoping to get just a few more things done before her patients needed her.

Pinja woke up, he had not eaten yet but she was already feeling sick to her stomach. She calculated in her mind how many more months of this she would have to go through when her eyes fell on the sapphire Lek had given her. Pinja winced. She wished Lek had not given her that and hoped he could get it back without being too badly hurt.

Continued in link to a message in this game