The woman snorted. “That’s what you’re worried about? Some fancy tattoos?”

Soraya couldn’t explain without revealing far more than she was willing—or allowed under her Oath—to reveal. “Just tell me.”

“One appeared after the first night. I killed six villagers that night, because they weren’t ready for me. There was no curfew, no warning. I just rampaged through them. Injured another six within an inch of their lives.” She said all of this without emotion, as if recounting a list of supplies she’d purchased at the market. “The next one appeared a week or so later, after I’d had a run-in with twelve hardy local men who’d decided enough was enough and tried to poke at me with knives and pitchforks. They didn’t try that again, instead implementing the official curfew.”

“And the third?” Soraya asked, trying not to show the shock she felt inside at how quickly this woman had acquired her gold leaves.

Seela shrugged. “Time started to lose meaning after that. It felt like I was sleepwalking through the days and living in my own nightmares after dusk. Maybe it was another two weeks? Three at the most? What difference does it make? I’m a monster.”

She began scratching at the back of her neck, furiously, like she had a pesky itch that refused to be sated. Her nose twitched slightly. Was she about to transform again?

Seela seemed to sense her concern. “You don’t need to worry. It only happens after dusk. Because a part of me is nocturnal now, I suppose. But I can still feel it inside, like a hidden part of me.”

“What do you feel?”

“That hunger, always gnawing, always needing, always wanting. It’s like what I said earlier: that desire for revenge, except there’s no one target for my anger. I want to hurt everyone. I want them all to bleed, to feel pain, to exist in the same plane of torment as I exist in now. But even as I loathe myself and what I’ve become, I feel joy in it, in the freedom of being bound by no rules, driven by that insatiable instinct to kill.” Silence fell like a blanket had been thrown over their words, and when Seela began to speak again, she did so with a whisper that had more force than a shout. “Now do what you came here to do. I am ready.”

Soraya swallowed. Ever since she’d taken her first step outside the bounds of the Rocklands, she’d been trying to prove she was an equal partner to Shim, deserving of her title as Forsworn Guardian. She’d been brave, hadn’t she? She’d run toward danger, like with the six-limbed bear. She’d returned to Seer when all she’d wanted to do was run back into her father’s arms.