Snippet #2733299

“Alright. Let’s talk.” Maelthra said and took a seat in the wicker chair beside her bed. She shifted comfortably with her back against the headboard. “I know the illness is in your breath, but what exactly is it?” He asked and Clara was admittedly suprised by this question. She wasn't sure what he was going to ask but she hadn't expected this, which should have been obvious given the episode she has but she hadn't expected him to care. He looked more human now, not that his appearance wasn't, just that he seemed more approachable, not the sneering, conniving fiend he'd been just a few hours ago.

Taken a shaky breath, she began. "Well, no one knows for sure," She said softly. "You see, I am a Winter child," She said and when he didn't look aghast, she knew he didn't know what that meant and continued. "In Merian, while it's lovely and warm year round, we have moments of harsh violent winters. Nothing grows, everything dies, I am one of the only childern in recent history to be born during this time and I am the only one to survive". She explained and looked down at her fingers. "My mogther was caught in a storm, she was a good woman, my mother, loved by her people and she'd gone to help prepare the town for the Long Night as we call our Winter." Clara swallowed. "A storm hit suddenly, and my mother was trapped in it, and she gave birth to me out there, in the storm with a few handmaidens. Narissa's mother and myself were the only ones to survive the nignt. I was a miracle," She said and sighed sadly. The only thing she knew of her mother was her portrait hanging in the great hall. She was glad he hadn't ordered it removed.

"With that, though, something went wrong as I grew up, the healers and nurses don't know but it is difficult for me to breath, I get winded very quickly, and if I am overly stressed." She gestured to him but it wasn't accusative, just factual. "I get an episode, or an attack if you will." She said. "My chest gets tight, and it's near impossible for my breath to escape, it's worse at night." She told him, glancing behind them to the nignt sky, the moon, not yet full but creeping ever closer.

"It was worse when I was young." She said remembering how often she'd had those attacks, her father had her bedridden for most of her life until thet came up with the tea. "I have the tea, you saw, Eucalyptus and Mint, a recipe from the Orinans, the steam helps with an attack and drinking it keeps it at bay, horrible tasting thing but it works." She chuckled softly with a shrug but her smile faded.

"When I sleep though, sometimes, I stop breathing altogether, most nights, I wake up before it's too late, but I always fear that one day, I might not wake in time," She said and had no idea why she told him that much but she went on anyway. "Other nights, I sleep walk, or I don't sleep at all," She said and shrugged and looked him in the eye the first time since she began. "There, my illness." She smiled thinnly. "If you find me wandering the halls at night, like some sort of ghost, that's why," She tried to joke but she hated it, it was terrifying knowing at any moment she could leap from her tower, or fall down the stairs, killing herself while she slept. If she were to die, she wanted to die standing, fighting for something.