Amazon was numb. Numb to everything. It hadn't always been like that, though. When she had left Polaris, she could barely stop running and she could barely stop crying. There was nothing in her head except the same scene over and over again. The young aardwolf kneeling in front of her, their life going out with a flicker. The soft crack of their gem. The coldness that had come so quickly. And Amazon, unable to do anything, had fled. She had run because she knew that it was coming for her too. Death.

It was a certainty that she had realized. Khloros had been the one to say that something was wrong and Envy had helped her figure out what it was. And Onyekachukwu, whose gem had ended their life, was the one that showed her the end. She wouldn't survive. The pain would get worse and worse. The sickness would take over. And she would die.

Her feet dragged, exhaustion falling over her. What energy she had brought herself to run away before was burnt away. Any relief from her pain that her new spell had given her had evaporated. Her head pounded angrily and she felt the skin around her gem begin to burn again. But she had to keep moving. She had to get somewhere to rest. Where she felt safe.

She didn't know where she was when she collapsed. Only that it was mildly sheltered, a crevice in the rock wall. But she was so exhausted and numb, from everything and everyone, that she couldn't care. But as she closed her eyes, sleep did not come. She couldn't stop thinking about it, about everything. And the headache just wouldn't go away.