Broken Antler Fen and armor beneath her skin

pri, ingram comes crashing through the undergrowth after her and she turns, startled, despite being startled, then soothed and then ridden with more guilt as she looks upon him with teary frostbound silver eyes. she's been relying on the numbness she feels to keep her composure and yet it cracks and shatters the second she truly lays eyes upon him ...because he is her father and he is all she has left and she loves him. nontu, she hiccups, voice trembling as she tries and fails to grasp her carefully composed façade ...but in the moment that she closes the distance between them and buries her face into his chest she realizes that in this moment she isn't wanheda ( aptly, she bitterly thinks she is truly the commander of death now ). she is just praimfaya. just a girl who lost her mother. just ingram's daughter.

she can allow herself this, she thinks. this breaking of her heart. this moment of utter vulnerability.

i'm sorry, she whispers into his fur. it's my fault. you are wanheda. the commander of death.