with the stories of the silvery prince, his grandfather and grandfather's mate under his belt, delight feels he's making good progress. he hopes they expand soon so that he has an excuse to actually use the tale he's slowly weaving together, though he's still missing important pieces of the puzzle. continuing the thread of using mato as the center of the story - a completely objective decision thankyou - means he's prioritizing those closest to him and logically that puts seabreeze brienne at the top of his list but. he can't help but hesitate just slightly. not  because - it's - look, they're friends and he actually really likes the cream-colored girl and he's rooting for her definitely, but she's intuitive enough that he's a little afraid that she'll look right through him and know. it's not exactly a secret but he hasn't even been able to put it into words for himself and maybe he never will since it's doomed from the get-go, but what if she figures it out before he can stop her? augh. if she hadn't already put it together given the androgyne had downright fled from her explanation, the question on his tongue turned to ash.

all this to say he's waffling: he wants to find her because he has a job to do and he is also terrified of finding her just a little bit, and so instead of doing anything productive the dusk-wisp boy is pacing the forest near-ish her den, far enough that it could be coincidence but close enough he's not exactly hiding. alas, the woes of the poor observer, doomed to watch wistfully from the outside.