Lirrah couldn't much answer Irian, and could only sputter unintelligibly in response to his trying to comfort her, but she appreciated it all the same. She wanted to close her eyes. She wanted to deprive herself of one sense to mitigate the flood of information that was turning her brain into soup, but every time she tried, she imagined that danger would pounce on her and catch her unawares. Her eyes were her only weapon against the fear, but also her greatest weakness.

The Lamia, it appeared, was looking back at her on occasion when there was a lull in the combat. What did she want? Maybe she was looking down on Lirrah for being a weak coward. Perhaps she was disappointed in how pathetic the tiny merchant really was.

Well, Lirrah had come all this way. She'd helped out a lot. She'd done more than anyone could have expected, so ducking out now should be completely acceptable, right? Why was everyone [i]always looking down on her[/i]?

Lirrah's perfectly polished and manicured nails raked the stonework beneath her, roughly chipping and grating as tears fell from her eyes.

The night, as a whole, stretched her thinner and thinner over the proceedings, and this was the breaking point. First, she was only illuminating the enemy. Then, she was shooting them in the back while they fled. Then, staking her life in a potentially trapped tomb. The Witch? Ridiculous. It was too much for her tiny Nem heart, especially after all of the other things. She'd snapped, and now all she could do was claw at the ground as paranoid thoughts ran through her head about how everyone she had gotten to know in the Lions would [i]hate[/i] her. That is, if they got out alive at all.

How could they all be so brave? How were they not clawing at the ground in anguish? Not rolled up in a whimpering ball? It made Lirrah feel like the odd one out, but this wasn't [i]normal[/i]. There had to be some madness behind their courage. Some failing that somehow made her cowardice acceptable. But the woman who saved her life was heading up the charge, so if [i]they[/i] were the flawed ones, what did that make [i]Lirrah[/i]?