Alya has to hold back a screech whenever Alix gets hurt.
It’s not that she can’t handle the sight of blood. She can. She’s strong, and some liquid that courses through her own body can’t make her faint.
It’s just that she’s grown up watching her little sisters get petty injuries, watch them try to be brave and fail. She’s grown up jumping at any sound too loud, hoping no one has gotten hurt.
She hates seeing bruises, wounds, blood, or scrapes on Alix because it reminds her of mortality, reminds her that any moment Alix could die, leaving her all alone in this world.
She screeches if Alix gets a paper cut, if she shatters anything and scratches herself. It convinceseveryone that if Alix were to die, Alya would break eardrums with her screech.
They find, that when the time comes, the grief steals the any sound from Alya, and forces her into a life of silence.
They never hear a screech out of her again.
