Blackfeather Woods bitter pill

She struggled to understand him once again--but 'ome now could not be misconstrued. Maegi smiled, nodding. "Yes, we're home," she crooned. There was a pang, though, in her heart as she said the words, thinking of all they had left behind. . .Coelacanth, Venninne, Reed, Moorhen. The list went on from there, and she wondered whether that guilt would ever leave her. Certainly the guilt of abandoning her brothers was still alive and well.

The girl sighed, feeling, once more, the weight of all her past betrayals. She knew that she was tied to Mou forever, for no reason other than she could not walk away from another loved one again. Should she do so, it would be more of the same. Mou had been brought into her life for a reason--she was old enough, now, to know that to undermine the work of the gods and abandon him, too, would be foolish, self-detrimental.

Not to mention that it would hurt him, too.

"Would you like a tour?" she asked suddenly, trying to drag herself from that dark spiral of thoughts. Her eyes gleamed with wry humor. "I know this place pretty well."