Redhawk Caldera to autumn and i fall all over her

for as long as hydra spoke, terance let her-- because he owed her at least that... right? his demeanor at first withered and withdrew, her words each a dagger to his heart, which was breaking so easily these days. but at a point in her monologue, in this soap box speech, terance realized quite abruptly exactly what her words meant. whether or not she meant to be so ominous and alluding was beyond terance, but he wasn't without a brain, and he could read between the lines. 

maybe she couldn't bring herself to hate rannoch, but she hated him. hydra hated terance.

his gaze, so previously glassy and pained, hardened into an unmoving, stiff, emotionless stare. she hated him, and it was no longer some petty game that terance could pretend to play along with-- it was much more than that, and terance was suddenly tired of playing-- of playing the sad, broken traitor. because he wasn't a traitor. lyra was manipulative and led him on by his nose, only to drop him off when he wasn't useful to her. did she care for him, most certainly, but that's not to say she wasn't insensitive about how everyone knew that he felt about her. hydra knew this, surely, terance knew how close they were. so why did she pretend like this was solely a decision based off of her and rannoch? like all he was doing was picking friends? he didn't do this to be cruel-- he did it to stay afloat. because every day within the borders of moonspear, with lyra so close but so far from reach, crushed him. 

she knew this. terance knew she knew this.

"you're being selfish, hydra," terance said, once hydra had finished speaking. his gaze angled forwards and his ears slicked back. and she was. of course, terance knew she was too stubborn (just as he was) to see this, so he wasn't going to push it. 

unless hydra lunged forward and tore his throat out or something wild like that, terance was just going to accept this defeat. she hated him, officially. this was closure, something terance had only dreamt of-- because before today there was always a sliver of hope that the two would mature and grow back together. and so closure meant he could leave in one piece. "my wolves will not bother the glen," he said in final confirmation and, as she commanded, terance turned and left.