Blackfeather Woods you are young and life is long

maegi answered, her tone brittle, cold. relmyna did not respond for a moment, turning the image of the flower over in her mind, as well as noting the glance that the melonii exchanged with the younger. her attention on astara for a moment. her exhausted daughter faded into sleep, and relmyna glanced with an apologetic warm at the other of her brood, into the pale, fathomless eyes.
in the next moment, her own seafoam gaze returned to maegi. the hard edge she had sensed in the girl filled the listener's awareness; pride, pain, nameless things. relmyna knew not how to address such things, not with a great rift between them, and one she did not think she had hope of mending. i do not blame you, maegi, she mouthed all the same, a pause following wherein she held the two-toned eyes for a long moment.
without you, astara might have died. i am grateful you were there. it was the truth, and suspicion was beginning to ebb from relmyna that this had been deliberate. if they are drawn to poison, it is something cicero passed down to them. cicero. she had not yet said his name in this way, and her gaze tightened with a sudden and inscrutable expression. were there more of the flowers?