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

Mahler left anyway, and Wylla thought for just a second, and unfairly, how he only ever seemed to do the opposite of whatever she asked of him. But unlike her usual tendency to grow indignant and fester in it, she smoothed out her ruffled feathers and forced the feeling away. She had no right to it, not with how many times she had driven him away. Mahler was right. She needed the remedies, or the fever would come back before long. He left only because he must; to stay would do her more harm.

So she watched him go, breathing quickly through her nose and feeling the weight of exhaustion pressing on her thin shoulders. She watched him retreat and she thought, and while she thought, she grew drowsy.

He wasn't gone long, but her eyelids drooped by the time he returned. Wylla's ears twitched upright at the sound of his heavy tread, familiar despite months apart with only heated words between them. No whispering steps to announce Phaedra, however. Perhaps she would have to catch up with her daughter another time, if she didn't ultimately succumb to sickness. If she was going back to Rivenwood to recover, there would be time.

Time that she needed to use to sort out her wants, as well. Wylla listened rather than watched as Mahler worked, letting her eyes rest and letting the methodical sounds calm her quick breathing, trying to ignore the ripples of nausea and sickly warmth that skittered across the back of her throat now and again. She winced when he dribbled something hot and sticky over her shoulder, causing the air around her to burst with the ripe, fruity sweetness of Phaedra's remedy.

I'll come, Wylla said after some time, turning her head to glance up at him. She didn't like it much, mostly due to the possibility of Sagtannet's remaining number treating her with scorn and disgust and the imagined likelihood that Mahler would allow them to, but time with Phaedra was worth it. Maybe she could make something of it, if she could keep her mind from its dark thoughts for a time. To Rivenwood.