Sleepy Fox Hollow Gain the weight of you, then lose it

Phaedra's player says she'll either hop in when she has writing energy or will just do a separate thread later if not, so we can go a few rounds skipping her!

Despite what Wylla had seen in Mahler's eyes moments prior, when he stood back up from adjusting the dressing, there was a more strained formality between them. It made sense; their last few meetings had not been charitable for either of them. Wylla's expectations clashed with Mahler's willingness in ways that made any relationship between them seem untenable, at least to her eyes, and she could not forget the way he had reduced her to simply a woman who must produce children, and scoured away what her faithfulness meant with the suggestion.

That didn't mean she didn't wish for it back in these quiet moments where her soul was laid bare, whether she liked it or not, if only they could find some way to hear one another's languages beneath the accusations and the hesitation. If only he could prove, in some way, the words he spoke were the truth in a way that Wylla could believe, and if only she could let go of her paranoia and trust him for a moment.

But because there was that strain between them, and because Wylla could only ever nitpick at the manner in which Mahler said his words and failed to back them up with his actions, and because she was a woman of action who placed little faith in words alone, she sank to the same formality. In fact, she sank further, down to a place where Mahler was only here because he had to be, for his daughter's sake, and must want nothing more than to return. This, reinforced by the small talk he made about the bear, which might have made her chuckle if they were on better terms, but only made her grimace.

You can go now, she told him, not in the dismissive manner that suggested she wanted him gone, but in a rare understanding one that suggested he didn't want to be here. She met his eyes with her singular one briefly, then glanced away, freeing him of this obligation. I'll be fine.

It was an absolute lie. Wylla would not be fine without the regular care of a wolf who knew what they were doing, and a waver in her tone acknowledged as much. She was simply convinced that he would prefer to not linger in her presence, knowing that she expected more of him than what he was willing to give her, and likely hating her for it in the ways she behaved as though she hated him (and she did hate the way he was, in some ways, and she wished, in other ways, that it was more absolute, for it would be easier for both of them to walk away and never return, as they always did).

Freeing him of remaining here with her, and freeing Phaedra of watching her parents in all their tension and reluctance; that was her intention.