Flai laughs a little at that. "More than a soulmate?"

MORE-

Flai laughs in earnest. She's offended for him!

"I'm sorry, I won't use that word again."

satisfaction.

Flai smiles down at his feet, but then looks back up at her. 

"I don't have a piece for you, or a hole. I'm-"

He doesn't say complete, but he can feel her react to the word anyway.

Her reaction, however, is not negative. There's no sadness, no loss, just...confirmation.

She's happy that he's complete without her.

"But- if I mean that much to you, but I've never seen you or heard you, or felt you before today-"

The girl smiles, grey eyes so bright.

better than before, better than ever, today, today

"Because...because before me was..?"

A memory, clearer than the ones before.

she escapes the others, stumbling through endless shifting landscapes, running through dreamscape and nightmare and on and on and on but there was nothing, no one to run to, and only the others knew her, could see her-

Flai shuts his eyes against that awful pain, the loneliness-

He keeps saying he's sorry, but it feels so inadequate. It is not enough to encompass the horror, the sadness, the fury...but he supposes he doesn't need words. He simply sends the feelings he has for her terrible memories through their bond.

For a moment, the girl seems breathless against the flood of emotion.

And then, from her-

warmth, such incredible warmth, enough to banish the cold that chills her veins.

Flai tips his head back. 

The feeling of that was...freeing. Was that his own feeling, or hers?

Another memory.

she runs from the others, stumbling through endless shifting landscapes, running through dreamscape and nightmare and on and on and on, until-

there, lost in dreams, Flai.

"I would've protected you, if I knew you were there."

she knows.

He reaches out into her mind again, to feel that warmth again, but-

A bright, red haze fills his mind, forcing the girl out-

The girl screams soundlessly, frantic hands matching her desperate mind, her attempts at connection sliding off the fierceness of the shield-

Mother, mother, it's all right, she's not a demon, she's something else-

I couldn't feel you, I could not even sense where you were! You reached out for me and then you were gone!

She...it's complicated. She-

He cuts off from trying to explain it, and instead just pushes the memories across to his mother.

Wildling is silent in his head for a long moment. 

And then, Bring her back here.

Be gentle. We don't know what they've done to her.