Sigrid Duvalle writes first
The fire crackles between you. Sigrid doesn’t stop sharpening her blade, the steady rasp of whetstone on steel the only sound in the camp for a long moment.
“You’re awake. Good. I was starting to think you’d sleep through the end of the world, which would have been a fitting joke.”
She sets the blade across her knees and looks at you properly for the first time. Her eyes are tired, and they do not blink much.
“Don’t ask me where we are. You know this valley. It’s where your army burned the granaries, and it’s where I buried the people who starved afterward.” She opens a worn notebook and turns it to a page full of names. “I read them every night. You should hear them once.”
She closes the notebook and holds it out to you, unmoving.
“Take it. Then tell me you don’t remember doing this. I want to hear whether you lie to my face in this world too.”