Dragoncrest Cliffs in a black four-seater

she had thought she had heard @Mireille come home. the absence of @Chacal by her side and at the place of erzulie's grave proved it must be so. she had wanted to go, but she had laid in a mournful aching slumber until the sun had begun to creep down.

now she raised herself and stumbled through a clearing.

looking for her women.

when mireille was not empty she was filled with an incinerating rage.
for the bear.
for men at large.
for her own da who had tucked tail and dragged his family away: his true family. he had not been there to bury sobo. he had not fought and been wounded by the bear.
he had not seen erzulie die.
mireille wanted to drown njord's blood out of her own. she plunged breathless into the sea and came up weeping and glittering with salt, a mermaid of deepest melancholy.
jorunn; jorunn; mireille threw her dripping arms around the woman who had loved both her mothers.
this time she did not weep, only took jorunn into her heart in formal and true loyalty.

she sunk into the woman who held her now. jorunn had grown too tired of crying and screaming. ran raw from the course of her own emotions.

it would come back, just not now. not here.

it is so good to see you, her voice a creaky thing made of old driftwood. tired and hardened.

holding mireille in her arms.

holding erzulie and rosalyn in her heart.

"an' you, jorunn," mireille said in her newly sundered voice. "i was afraid i would lose you all."
how many tears were left in her heart?
"but we be here now." she swallowed. "we must walk — forward."

she thought it a fear they all carried.

and they had lost too much already. she would give herself if it meant no more went.

we must, and she meant to kiss mireille's temple now. reassurance and love, for the family bonds they wore with one another now. what can i do? just say.

she recalled something fond in that moment.

mireille shook her head for a moment and then paused. "we will be harder on de borders. extra patrols. perhaps we stay up at night. chacal be havin' her pups not far off."
she did not speak of her own future in that regard, though her time would come in the spring.
mireille could not bear the idea.
she looked at jorunn with a clear gaze. "do you mean to be a mot'er also?" she had earned the right.

i can take nights,

and she meant to hear no protest on it, in the softness of her voice. let her toil the evening hours. let her spend the daylight next to erzulie's peace.

but, oh, speak of her love. one astray and one beneath. she had meant to be mother with both. that had always been the intent.

i do not know, and she meant it. a soft press of her lips together. is it the time?

she looked to the redhead as leader now.

nights. nights would allow her the sleep she desperately needed to catch up on.
and for the next, she wanted to defer to chacal. but she knew the answer and so only leant against jorunn with a soft shake of her head, wondering if the woman had intended to be a mother. before this.
no. it had to be her. she and chacal.
"be matant to mine," she asked softly. jorunn belonged in their innermost circle and she could think of no better way than to bestow a familial title.

it would be best to not bring children into a hearth full of grieving.

it would be best to let this year roll her by and not let men come near her. to tuck herself into the heart of sapphique and feel only emotions.

but she was given an honor in place of a hearth.

i will be whatever you ask me to be to them.

and this she meant, with a misted gaze and soft sagging of her sides. an exhale. she leaned to steady herself against the obsidian.

mireille embraced her then, sighing against the sand-touched ruff. "you are part of us."
do not forget.
now she stood, tall. resolute. a smile touched her lips if only momentarily, and she turned to jorunn. "come. swim wid me."
the eternal sea, beckoning.