I'll Never See You Again if I Can't Help It

Even as Noor settled next to her and they tried to settle down for a moment, she still twitched with nervous energy. Fable's ears swiveled back and forth, searching for the origin of that dreadful wail that whistled between the spires. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at all once. Like the sound itself was dredged from the earth, just like the spires. It was enough to make her feel queasy.

Fable focused on the gap instead between her body and Noor's body. Spatially it was small, but emotionally... it was the widest chasm she'd ever seen. It wasn't so long ago that they had danced around a gap like this in the kitchen, living off of the highs of brief physical touches and the brush of fur on fur. Now she couldn't bring herself to be the first one to cross it, even though she could tell from the silence that Noor wouldn't either. They remained trapped on either side of an inch that felt like ten miles. It would take too much to bridge this gap. More than Fable had to give right now.

She drew idle patterns in the loosened dirt at the base of the spire. Each time, she dug a small hole and then filled it again repeatedly. When her paw brushed the ancient surface of the spire again she couldn't help but shudder. Eventually, the wind died down, and they were blanketed by silence thick and heavy. She couldn't just let it lie. "Did you come here... for me? Or to take me back and serve a sentence for my 'crimes'?" Because if so, you're a crappy jailer.

"Speech"