Blackfeather Woods meet me on the battlefield, even on the darkest night

His nose pushes her just a bit too hard, and in a second the little girl gasped, freaked out and curled up in around herself in what seemed a desperate attempt to shield her face from Damien. He pulled away and observed, blinking curiously. The girl had gained some weight from the first time he saw her, and now she looked less like a wet rat. Maybe she did have something in her to bring to the brotherhood, it was only a question of solidifying it through hard work.

"Xivilai," called the shadow prince, "I will not harm you," he promised, and allowed his nose to hover close to her again, this time with a rare tenderness to his moves to avoid scaring the spiderling again.