Sleepy Fox Hollow To the house in the pines where the road ends

a promise from wylla was nothing mahler trusted, but it was not a promise, was it? perceptive or perhaps paranoid, he eyed her somberly but said nothing more upon the subject of takiyok.
that was, until a spate of steam revealed wylla's honesty, and mahler gave the granite she-wolf a more searching look. despite whatever interior wants she harbored in her ferocious heart, the man could not help the nettle-like stinging of a new pain opening upon the gut of his soul.
she not only reciprocated nothing, diaspora would be the foothold for an ambitiousness that existence had never culled from wylla. unsurprised, truly; she had been his own regent once, mahler considered the implications of the betrayal she had forced him into with a single word.
allowing the woman to stay knowing her coveted position was already occupied by competent takiyok would lend intrigue to the desolate little court of diaspora, but challenged his loyalty to the winterwhite.
and if that ranking be her desire, what paused the woman from demanding the place of general as well? surely she had not returned to toy with mahler: surely there was no threat against the legacy of stigmata.
why would wylla share such things with him; her honesty took all forms but the one most pleasing to him, and he lapsed into a quietude for several steps.
"and vhy not first?"