The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.
Alexand’s condition is rapidly deteriorating. The nature of her illness is cyclical, and degenerative, and her doctor has given her the maximum dose of Katherine’s inhibitor, to try to stabilise her.
Alex wasn’t well enough to get out of bed, but she had been visited by most of her family once the news of her being awake spread. It’s night time now, and the last of the visitors left half an hour ago. Alex is exhausted, but quietly happy, knowing her family accept her. Jarad has been by her side for the past half an hour, reading to her.
Alexand suddenly feels very unwell, despite being very close to the factory, which she believes to hold the cure to her illness.
It is finally the fourteenth of May, and The Guild Master’s General has been watching over Katherine as she sleeps. He fades between energy and matter, making himself invisible to Katherine’s nurse as she injects a dose of adrenaline into Katherine’s bloodstream, to wake her up.
The group set down for the night, they’ve been using the cave as a base, to formulate their strategy. It’s cold, and Inajda has set up a heat shield around the perimeter where they’re sleeping. Alex has been feeling ill for the past few hours, and has moved away from the group, as she doesn’t want them to see her when she’s sick.
(This is for you Dad. You died exactly 20 years ago today. My stories and my world are dedicated to you. I will try to find you in my stories, to go to places far away from this world, to search for you. Maybe one day I’ll know you again. Until then I’ll keep writing. I’ll never forget you. This issue is also dedicated to Kelly Priestley, and her family, a beautiful soul, taken far too soon. You are in my thoughts.) Alexand and her troops have travelled for days across the Red Sand Hills of Kekexili, in Qinghai, China. The cart has avoided the mountains, where tribes of bandits live. The land is dangerous, and the threat from bandits is ever present. Farokh sits at the front behind the driver, next to Alex.
Alex wakes up after falling unconscious, due to her illness.
