Sun Mote Copse o quam sancta

khalba -- of course it would be him who arrived to proffer a gentle touch. eshamun wished very much to lean into it, to give over the grief she carried, but anger roused itself within her. the woman growled and nipped the man's ear sharply, removing herself from his closeness.

but when her viridian eyes alit on his own, she was filled with the shame of her outburst, and lifted her gaze to the heavens. she was tormented, yes -- tortured with the knowledge that the living, kicking children within her belonged to the eight-armed one, to turn away molech's eye.

"i want to keep them," she murmured, "for i am weak. i shall not, of course, but ... i do not deserve to be at the head of the malkaria with such vacillation in my heart. it is unnatural that i should become bonded to them, and yet i am." she breathed the last in a tremble - why khalba should invite such vulnerability within her she did not know.