Lita was in the corner of her room. Knees pulled up. Face down. Shoulders shaking with the kind of crying that had been held back too long and finally got out all at once.
Flare stopped in the doorway. Took it in.
She crossed the room quietly and knelt beside her, close enough to matter, and waited.
Lita lifted her face. Eyes red and swollen, cheeks wet. "I hope everything I've heard is a lie, Flare. All the things they said… the gods, the wars, the greed. Why? Did I… did I really have to be born into this world just to see all this destruction and pain?"
Flare's chest pulled tight. Her hand went to Lita's shoulder. "Lita, it's not your fault. None of this is your fault."
"But it feels like it is!" Her voice broke on the last word, fresh tears spilling. "Why does it have to be this way? Why does everything have to be so cruel?"
Flare didn't try to fix it. Just sat with it for a moment. "I don't know why things are the way they are. I wish I could tell you that it's all going to be okay, that none of this is real. But the world… it's harsh, and it's unfair. It's full of things we can't control."
Lita wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Sniffled. "I thought everything was supposed to be different. I thought there was hope… but now, I don't even know anymore."
Flare sat down all the way beside her, back against the wall. Voice low. "Hope isn't always obvious, Lita. Sometimes it's buried beneath all the darkness. But you, more than anyone I've ever known, have the strength to find it. You have a light inside you, even if you don't feel it right now."
"But… what if I can't? What if all of this just gets worse?"
"Then I'll be there with you. Every step of the way. You're not alone in this, Lita."
Long quiet. Rain on the window. Lita shifted and leaned into Flare's shoulder, slowly, and some of the rigid tension in her went out.
"I don't want to lose everything. Not my family, not my friends."
"You won't," Flare whispered. "We'll protect them. Together."
They stayed like that. The room settling around them, the rain steady outside. No answers. Just the two of them in the dark, and the small fact of not being alone in it.