Dragoncrest Cliffs & Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, (mtr.)

Earlier, she’d shaken her head; it only felt like a fluttering, but rounded, as if joints had yet to form. It was as if her womb was made of amber, but— 

As always, she returned to him as he said her name, heard the sigh and how he tried to word himself out. His eyes, crackling, kept her ensnared as the rest of her listened to his confessions; it was her turn to fidget, ears curving at the apology, and then pressing back into her pale ruff. 

”Everything you said, I... I knew. Know. Have known. You are your own male; you be with who you wish, and you bed who you want. What I said, it... it wasn’t... it’s not...” It was her turn for her jaw to wire shut. Her demeanor was so heavy-lidded, so delicate; more daunted at this curtain between them than of him. “We are allies in this raising, and... and that is ze way I meant it. I pushed you when things are already so frayed. That is all, I... I am sorry, too.”

In the meantime, she reclined into a sit, her eyes only flickering from his searing one for a heartbeat. Just as with Takiyok, her attempt of veiling herself in some refined sense was quivery, meager. Mate— allies, mutuals, no matter how her heart yearned for him. Romance wasn’t needed to raise children, and— and she soon cinched her shoulders inward, peering into his eyes again, gleaming. ”I... you are forgiven, Verx. You don’t deserve to be cornered like that, though.”