Redtail Rise other loves, other vices

"Please," she said sharply, drawing back further still, "don't use that name. It's not - " The sentence was dropped like a hot potato when she realized what he was saying to her. I know, she wanted to say but couldn't. Likely, he would see it writ across her face. Instead, when she had found her voice again, she pretended she had not heard him. "I go by Blackbear, now," she said with a small, sad smile. I'm okay, she wanted to tell him. I'm taking care of myself. I know he'd hate it if I didn't.

The words still would not come. Nor could she bring herself to ask after the others. Did she even have the right? She had been gone from them in their time of need, and something in her had been changed by her wanderings. She wasn't Easy anymore. That carefree child had died alongside her father. She wasn't sure she was ready to be Ishara again, either. Sometimes, she wondered if Ishara had ever been real.

"Please don't tell them you saw me," she said after a moment, her voice hushed and pleading. "Adi - please? If you ever loved me?"