A flicker of raw, deeply human memory passed through her gaze… even though her eyes were close, due to her senses, she was seeing everything happening around her, terrifying sight of moments ago: this madman throwing himself into a tempest that would have peeled the flesh from any Layer 4 warrior's bones.
She remembered the sight of him tearing through the white-hot vortex of compressed spirit energy, skin flayed open by thousands of razor-sharp wind blades, bleeding from a hundred cuts without giving an inch of ground.
She remembered the sudden, shocking jolt of his thick, strong hands locking onto her trembling ankles, his own vitality roaring like a wild beast as he shoved his strength straight into her collapsing foundation to yank her back from the edge of oblivion.
And right behind that life-saving violence came the feverish memory of what had led to it under the weeping willows.
