Sunbeam Lair but i feel so small

while laurel was wondering how the world could be so cold, indra was wondering how a living, breathing, thing comprised of her own flesh and blood could be so distinctly cruel. gods -- was her womb rotted, or cursed, or blackened? was her entire family cursed to endless and interminable suffering?

she did not know a single happy soul in her life; her mother, her father, her dead siblings, her not dead half-siblings, laurel -- even the hapless relationships she had taken great care to fashion with love and tender devotion had crumbled. tadec had gone with piper, stigmata, where could she even start?

was it her, all along?

like laurel, indra was becoming rudderless -- she slept little, worried often, and hollows sunk their determined claws into her features so that she looked just as joyless as she felt. their trek might not have been entirely in vain, but indra was so very weary of being driven from door to door, never settled. never secure.

never happy.

her sister's solitude was briefly respected -- but after a while of noticing laurel's absence, indra rose from where she and marten had been resting and followed the trail of the only constant in her life. at least she had laurel through all of this, she thought -- though she wondered how laurel was able to keep herself together so well. the edges were beginning to fray, but she was still the strong laurel indra had always known - and indra still followed her without question or doubt.