Blackfeather Woods my life and all seemed turned to clay

her nightcub arrived, and the daycub followed. with astara, the skull; with averna, a look of consternation. her little ghosts. relmyna glanced between them, but said nothing, her voice dead in her throat, her eyes a burning coal-death. 
she did not so much ask the skull from astara as she took it; the listener stepped forward and warned her daughter away from the grim and eyeless thing with an expression that dared the child to do anything else. surrender; in this moment relmyna belonged only to herself. grasping the ivoried thing, the woman dragged it to the head of the pile, and began to sweep a clearing.
she arranged the bones she had found in the rough outline of a wolf, and placed what astara had brought at its head. a long breath; sithis whispered, and her eyes closed as she sought grounding before gesturing her daughters closer.