Barrow Fields where weird and grim the standing stones

Making assumptions and tagging for visibility. @Freyja @Thuringwethil

She nodded, then quietly mused, "He never really said, did he?" They had all been raised so differently, and each of them were proud Mayfairs— she wondered what might have been, had they actually all talked after his death. But she had run, unable to face her grief, and perhaps they all suffered for that, or perhaps nothing would have been different at all. They would never know. Deirdre, at least, seemed so certain and held such conviction of her beliefs— it was not Emaleth's right to strip that away, and she assumed that the others must have felt similarly. And so they had all left. That was a guilt that would stay with Emaleth for a long time, seeded into an anger that would fuel her desire for violence as a release— but that was only beginning to awaken within her.

"I'm sorry, Cas," she told him, and the pain in her voice showed the truth of it. "I really think I need to go somewhere that bears no connection to my past. I'm so— I'm so confused about everything, and I would do anything for my family. Even hide what I really want and who I really am." It was the very reason she had decided to leave Donnelaith, and the dark child knew she would fall in the same trap no matter which sibling she lived alongside.

"I met a fierce warrior on the cliffs north of here, and she told me small things about her home. I could learn there. I'd have to make it on my own. I wouldn't have to lead if I didn't want to." Emaleth told him this with a wistfulness like it was a story her father had told. "And I met a young princess, I think born of the same place— and she's like me, wanting to find her own way. I like the idea of some long adventure of self-discovery... but she's younger than I am, and I didn't like leading in Donnelaith because I felt too young."

She realized, then, how badly she missed her parents— and how part of her resented that she nearly raised herself. Emaleth's mind was nearly made up, wanting the stability and education that came with following wolves that had far more experience than she.