Katarina dreamed about the bandit with the staff.
He came at her again, the same sideways swing at her ribs, except this time when she got her forearm up the bone didn't crack and the staff bounced off her arm and back at his own face. He stumbled. Brynn was standing behind him with her arms crossed and that ridiculous grin Katarina had grown up with.
"That's my girl!"
Katarina paused.
"Mother?"
"Did you see that, dumpling? Did you feel that?"
"I... I think so?"
"You did so good! So, so good."
Brynn picked her up under the arms and lifted her into the air, the way she had when Katarina was four, except now Katarina was seventeen and Brynn was lifting her anyway. Katarina laughed.
Then, she woke up with a groan and her face mashed into a pillow that smelled like Pirra.
The sun was already up.
Katarina rolled onto her back and squinted at the ceiling. She flexed her fingers. She could almost feel a phantom soreness to them.
