[ it's apt, probably, with a hummingbird heart and a mind that flutters just as quickly. sabine walks toward river like a frightened animal and she can't argue against that. human beings are animals, after all, beasts of a kind that are just trying to survive.

sabine approaches with kindness and patience and unlike the mages what brought them here, river doesn't see a threat.

she doesn't take the hand as it's offered, though. instead, she touches sabine's palm with just her fingertips, gently tracing the creases of her hand and watching the trails closely. ]

It's a dream. Fiction. A falsehood.

[ a lie. her eyebrows furrow. ]

But it feels real. The walls are cold and your hand is warm. Doesn't make sense. Dreams are never this quiet.

[ but there's no way any of this is real! ]