She trailed off, watching me, choosing her next words carefully.
"There's a venerable elder at Moonspire Shrine. I need you to go to him, have him perform a cleansing rite for you, and then climb every one of the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine steps in wolf form to obtain a Moon Goddess blessing charm for Caspian. Do that, and we can put this whole matter behind us. All right?"
I stared at her, my eyes burning red.
"Seraphina Blackthorn, you and I are finished. If you want a blessing charm, go get it yourself."
I forced my battered body off the bed, trying to leave this wretched place.
But Seraphina blocked my path.
She ordered her servants to drag me away. They ignored my struggling, threw me onto a horse, and rode hard to the foot of Moonspire Shrine.
"Take him up the mountain."
Two guards seized me, one on each side. The steps were inlaid with silver dust, and even through my boots I could feel the burn. I hauled my broken body forward, one step, one bow, one step, one bow. Except I couldn't shift. The Severance Root had stolen that from me. So I climbed as a man on hands and knees over silver-laced stone, and the burning was just burning, with no wolf to share the pain.