Displacement

"Eska"

She remained pressed against Ulric but the voices didn't stop. Her mother's voice, or a voice that she assumed was her mother's, yammered incessantly in her ear. 'You were too late. You didn't make it in time. Did you even care?' Guilt clenched like a stone in Eska's throat and she closed her eyes tightly. She thought about how late she had been often. Had her legs moved faster. Had she not stopped here or there, then she would have been there in time to meet her mother before her passing. It was her fault that she hadn't been there. Her fault entirely.

The yip and movement of the dogs brought Eska back to the present. She barely heard Ulric say that he had heard Aranea's voice, but her lip curled back anyway. That woman had hurt him enough. She didn't need to continue doing so from the afterlife.

With Ulric wanting to leave, Eska nodded in agreement. She turned, thinking that she knew the way, but the fog was so thick. Had she spun about when the dogs moved? Which way was out? The acrid scent of woodsy moisture made it impossible to tell direction by nose. The brindled fae looked to the earthen man. "Do you remember the way?" The normally stoic fae had a worried expression on her face.