Cousin! Let us go bowling!
For once she exited the forest without the drive to consume the poppy seeds that had taken control of her mind. Such pangs came fewer and fewer, driven away the longer her body went without the precious nectar. She still desired it so, it niggling at the back of her mind, but it was lesser now, and her brain was clearer. Sharper, broken ice.
She did not go towards the territories of Redhawk or Moonspear, instead exiting through the Creek and heading south, away from the tumult. She searches for peace in the white expanse, some kind of place away from the dark oppression of Blackfeather Woods. It had been a long time since she had been this way, the area becoming more familiar with each step she takes.
The Mesa soon fills her western horizon, the lake feeding from its peak still flowing despite the cold. She approaches it, but hesitates upon seeing a dark figure by its shores.
Potema is still annoyed by the younger wolf's demanding tone, even after learning that he was potentially a relative of hers. She didn't know for sure; Meldresi's family is large, and consisted largely of alliterative names. Meldor clearly sounds like one of Meldresi's relatives (somewhere on her family tree), but Evgeni and Sascha are especially foreign. Married in most like, though a Melonii child would probably have an M-name. But she didn't herself, so she let it slide. Potema is keen enough to notice the word child rather than son, but does not confirm anything within her mind just yet, still considering Sascha to be a boy. Despite coming to terms with her mother's death, Potema still shakes upon recalling the circumstances behind her mother's passing. I was with her when she died,
Her mother's final days had been painful, the blood-sickness draining her body bit by bit until she could fight no longer and simply gave up, drifting into the Void. She hoped that she didn't catch that same sickness. I am Meldresi's eldest daughter Potema,
Cousin,
She repeats the word quietly. It was the first time she ever had seen one of her cousins. She knew that she had many from what the witches of Hag Fen had told her. Meldresi had not spoken much of them; little of her home was ever spoken of.
He is. He's been here for over a year now,
Potema turns her head, looking in the same direction as the boy does. There is a wolf there in the distance, and Potema's single eye strains to do the work of two. The wolf approaches, and the red speck on his shoulder becomes more apparent in Potema's vision. That is Kove. He is our Listen-
Potema stops herself. Our Listeners are not the same as the ones back home,
If she remembered correctly, in other sects the Listeners led the Dark Brotherhood, being direct conduits to the Night Mother — a connection she once thought she had. They are our High Priests,