Hi Bart. I don’t know if you’re getting my letters, but I’m going to keep writing them anyway. 

Magic must have been created to put curses on people. I am sure of it. 

This past month has been… eventful. From learning to sail a ship to arriving in the largest city I have seen, I have learned a lot. 

I learned that blinding prisoners makes them useless, a dead man walking. I learned that not every person in a difficult situation can be helped without consequences. And I learned that my mind is a fragile thing. 

I learned all that the hard way. 

I know I’m not smart, or clever, or wise. I know I shouldn’t only rely on my instinct, but it is the only thing around here I understand. I know how to use a knife and hide and sneak up on those who try to hurt me and my friends. I know where to find good sweets and how to hide them from the others. I know how to be dangerous.

But when my mind was taken from me, I woke up scared. 

If magic can do that, what else can it do? What can’t it do? I was stuck mindless for days, and I do not know if I can stop it from happening again, or if my friends are being honest about what I missed in those days. 

I’m scared. I want my brother, and dad, and I want to be back in Fernsworth, where things made sense. 

I want to be back in my country, where I don’t find my name on the walls of a f*ing cult’s hideout.

Lila put down her pen and glanced at her sleeping companions. She still didn’t know what it was her turn for. But every night, she heard that voice repeat that phrase in her dreams. Lila pulled her brothers’ cloak around her shoulders, keeping an eye out around her, waiting for the sun to rise on whatever was to come next.