Larksong Grotto I don't want to be king, I just want to sing a love song

there are many things about etoille that cross her mind, and most of them come to her in the dead quiet of night.  the ice is.. encompassing, and sometimes she feels trapped there.  often, she moves to sleep in the forest.

and it is there aided by cricketsong that he comes to her, or at least his memory does.  she knows that he is loyal first and foremost to his drageda, and she also knows that she would not thrive there.  but truly, does she thrive anywhere?

she barely knows him.  over the course of more or less an entire year, they have engaged briefly only every once in a while.  and although she has a worrying heart and wandering feet, she wonders if that could be enough for her.

because it is obvious to both of them that there is something that lingers there beneath the surface that neither of them are willing to touch.  at least for now.

i never got the chance to ask about your children.  i am caring for some here, but it is.. not the same.  it is a subtle way to pry, to catch a glimpse into his personal life.  she might not have cared if she was his second... but this man did not seem like he had the energy for two women.

the glacier, she says with a sweep of her nose.  with a band of northerners and their young ones.  they are fleeing something, but i do not know what.