Izzy held her breath as she returned Cerasus’ detached gaze. No, not Cerasus, not anymore. What sat before her now was all but an empty shell of the man he had been, the anger in his dull golden eyes chilling.
	“What?” she asked, looking to Riley as he began. Her face fell as he continued. She had not thought about it like that. But now, looking at the child sitting in the corner, the truth of his words hung heavily around her. “I-I didn’t... That’s not...” She gave a jittery exhale. The room around her suddenly felt like it was closing in around her and the child, the cold the walls managed to retain seeping into her bones. “I need some air,” she finished hoarsely, scrambling to her feet. She all but ran down the steps, her head bent and stomach churning.
	Just outside the front door, she stepped to the side and leaned against a patch of wall not coated in ivy. She ran a hand down her face. She had turned Cerasus into the very thing she had loathed being. [i]A pet.[/i] No. She had still had her will, her moxie. What was the once grand, proud Cerasus was now little more than a wisp of his former self, stripped even of those. 
	She sunk to the rocky ground with a sob, her staff clattering to the weed-caked ground beside her, and placed her head in her hands as tears spilled from the corner of her eyes.
	“What have I done?” she moaned into her palms in scarcely a whisper.