Dragoncrest Cliffs is the fairest thing on the black earth,

erzulie was at once both more perceptive than she believed, and not enough. "i want you to join your mama an' i in leadership as soon as you are able," she said softly. "but sapphique must be a place that is fair. njord earned his position as ruby." these were preliminaries to fill the beginning of something she did not say and could not word, a feeling of displacement that wreathed in frustration from chacal.
"i hear your voice even when you are not singing," the harlot found herself saying softly; she meant to impress upon her girl that she was seen and heeded. though as of late she had not done well to show this.
"and i know your presence be important here." she thought of how the girl had comforted valravn, how they had both looked upon her with a malaise of anger and frustration.
"any position you want here is yours to take, chacal; you must only show that you wish to take it. every wolf knows de silent word. an' dey know you be de daughter of erzulie an' rosalyn." a thousand things here that had been offered to children past and never taken. valravn must conquer his fear of the sea and chacal must turn herself into a note of sound, for already she had become an figure that could not be ignored.