Herbalists' Cache blue

They were locked into what might seem like a stalemate to an outsider, but both of them knew that Komodo's resolve was stronger than hers.

She wasn't angry with him.  Perhaps she wasn't angry at all; there was a rolling fire in her belly, yes.. but it was more a concoction of shame and embarrassment than anything else.  Alexander had humiliated her.  She fretted over what had transpired — in front of Komodo, in front of the kids! — between herself and that vindictive child she once had called her husband each and every night.. and thus far she had been too frightened to acknowledge it.

All she knew was that she had started to heal.  Misguided as that alabaster man might be, their children were loved.  They were hers no longer, but they were fat, growing, and attached.  If they wanted to seek her out as adults, she would not spurn them... but no longer would she grasp desperately at straws that were quite plainly out of reach.  

And while that helped her with the wounds of her past, it didn't help the nervous energy that collected in her present.  The fretting, the anxiety.  If he had tried to comfort her — and he might have; the winter raven was notoriously obtuse — she had missed it completely.

Yakone drifts off into an easy slumber and she untangles herself from around him.  She cannot meet his gaze (hah!) but she does take a reluctant step towards the Earthstalker.  Her ears slick back and she struggles to find what she wants to say.  Words for her are hard, abstract feelings are even harder.  Mm-mo-do?