Physical pain is one thing. Jade has endured much of it over her life, from using her body to protect her little sister by directing her father's anger and punishments on her, to the torture inflicted on her as a slave. Emotional pain, the kind that's easier to hide, is a different story. It always was. Being able to smile through the bruises to reassure her mother that she did her best, masking the fact that she had been talking to 'ghosts' during those weeks spent in isolation in her master's cellar.

After years' worth of covering it all, the mask is bound to crack eventually. It's been cracking for some time now, with each hit she takes, with each loss she feels.

Hope is so cruel. It made her believe she could have a better life on more than one occasion. She's afraid to give in to that feeling again.

Biting back a sob, Jade doesn't yet allow herself to do what Imoen says she should.

"I dunno... Being wanted doesn't seem to have a positive track record for the people around me." Her fingers twist together, hands wringing as she stares down at the water, not daring to touch it again. "Y'know why I decided to climb the mountains?"

Maybe the answer was obvious, not only based on what she had said previously, but in the things she had said in the memory. In front of Rynéus' pyre, as the boy's mutilated flesh peeled away into charred meat as the hours drew on.