Chapter 15

My life in the Sanctuary was fulfilling. I wasn't anyone's subordinate anymore, nor a lowly cleaner. I had become the heart and hope of these wanderers. Every morning, I would mix a little of my blood into the spring water, letting it flow through every corner of the camp. As for those twins from the tribe? I had hated them at first, but hate was exhausting. It drained more from me than it ever did from them. I didn't even bother thinking about them anymore. They were prisoners now, each consumed by their own mania. Without me, they wouldn't last long. So why should I kill them with my own hands? It was better to let them live a little longer and let every single day they breathed be steeped in endless regret and pain. That was far more satisfying. That afternoon, I carried my basket deep into the swamp to gather a rare cleansing herb. Even though the area had been partially purified, danger still lurked in the shadows. I had just reached the edge of a dense thicket when the gr