Overture Downs why because you dance like a wounded giraffe.

Hurt flooded Liffey at Gannet's rejection, but after a moment, she realized it wasn't really a rejection. It was... something else. She frowned, swallowing her hurt and focusing on what he'd actually said instead of how it made her feel. She's totally maturing like that.

"Gannet, I didn't ask because I feel bad," Liffey said, trying to take care with her words even though she had no idea what the issue here was, "I asked because I want you to join us. Unless, you don't want to." She frowned, catching Gannet's uncertainty like a contagion. When they had left Moonspear, it had never occurred to her to ask Gannet to come. She hadn't thought that was a possibility, nor that he would've even wanted to. Mostly though, she'd been absolutely certain that Charon and his daughters would never have allowed him to leave, and she'd had no desire to get him in any deeper trouble with the Ostregas than he was already.