Duskfire Glacier nothing in comparison

they were a pair; the tundrian king who was widowed twice and the shadow queen who had her heart spurned by the man she'd hoped to build her future with and, in part, by her child. wintersbane cannot help but wonder how young the cub was when he'd left — thinking of how he'd felt when quellcrist had parted ways with him. he'd accepted it ...because she was a woman grown and he could no more tell her to do than he could tell a storm to cease brewing; and, in truth, she was plenty like him ( for better or worse ).

but then, what condolences could he offer? when he, too, was once that son? kidnapped brazenly from the borders of teaglaigh and dragged halfway across the teekon wilds with the childish belief that he was being taken home — to the nightingale queen whom had birthed him. and when he had finally returned home? he'd found her grave and his father and siblings gone; the blame of which cast upon his shoulders by his estranged eldest sister.

i do, wintersbane replies. there is my eldest daughter, quellcrist, and my youngest daughter miwa of whom has crossed my paths a few times but never stayed. i suspect i have sired more than those two but i have never met them. he draws in a breath and lets it out in a soft exhale. that was the driving reason behind duskfire glacier, for me. a place where i could raise a family. i'd like to be a true father to my children. for while he had no issues siring to those who sought him out he also desired to help raise them. so that they might know him as dad and not as a 'stranger who looked like them'.