Broken Antler Fen well I'mma go down on a railroad track

It feels like she's speaking from the heart for the first time in months. It is surprising to be speaking at all, more-so that she's with her husband, and yet the only reply issued from this long-lost-love was the singular, Congratulations.

Ibis doesn't know what to say, she just stares ahead. It felt like she had sprung a leak, that she might crumble with this new shift in pressure. Her mind is a blur. Why bother thinking at all when feelings are there, burning through her. It is a grab bag of feelings — adoration for this man she thought was gone mingling with the sense of abandonment she has never, and will never, recover from. Rage too, which has no place anywhere. Guilt; she wants to sink in to herself and wallow just as much as she wants to rage and to love.

A-and two daughters, she struggles to say, sniffling, her tongue feeling heavy. I waited as long as I could for you. As if this were his fault alone. The crying is less now, the tears streaming soundlessly while Ibis shudders to breathe, grimacing.

Akavir, she sighs his name, squeezing her eyes shut and hoping to clear them, to look at him properly. There is sadness in her eyes and there is hope, too. Akavir please, please don't leave me again. More warmth spreads down her face, by now the pale tone of her cheeks holds a buttery sheen.