Bearclaw Valley beloved physician

it took another's blood instead of father's.

it took my blood, she cuts in, suddenly a little peeved. he talks in riddles; she doesn't like it. he talks as if he is the arbiter of all that is true and real, but hadn't they both nearly perished? the only reason he reigns above her is that she had left and he had not—

but if the white woman hadn't broken his body, hadn't spat in her mother's face, she would have never left at all. 

he is not special. he is a beneficiary of circumstance.

Avicus shifts her body, putting the still-healing, ugly, twisted line upon her shoulder on full display. i am alive. Evien is not. i fought; he failed. how is Ursus weaker? if anything, it is stronger; the healer's inability to fend off an attack only benefits them in the long run. 

but it is the most words she's spoken in one sitting in a long time—perhaps ever—and her tongue is exhausted. she falls silent, glowering at Aventus (albeit still showing bodily deference).