Azahra tried to meet Lucia’s gaze, but it was obviously difficult for her. Lucia knew that feeling all too well.
She also learned to keep her eyes lowered, her body submissive to those around her. That's why Lucia could not bear to see such things in another. It was like reliving her youth all over again. She had been freed by chance, no more than that. If the Southerners had not attacked their kingdom, then there was little doubt that Lucia would have remained as she had been. Broken.
Damned if she would let that continue with Azahra. She didn’t see a Hibernian, a different body and form, she saw someone just like her. The pain, self-doubt, the conviction that the things that happened were because she was not good enough, that it was her fault.
Only now, because of those around her an
