Noctisardor Bypass bedauert

"i believe you," mahler rejoined smilingly. after a brief inspection of her healing wound, he pushed the rabbit haunch toward her. "there is more," he said softly. often after one had been deprived of food, the natural reaction was to eat then as much as they were able. bur such actions led to the quick souring of the belly.
despite this, and naturally, he would let her have as much as she wished. mahler settled himself nearby in the air of a man who has just opened the newspaper at the breakfast table. 
yet he meant to watch her surreptitiously, lilac gaze flicking sideways as be busied himself with the poultice he had brought. before it had been a mixture of feverberry and feverleaf; now he packed the wound mostly with a treatment of white birch and oak. 
the tannins in the latter would cool the vivid pink of a healing wound. the former was for any liquid that might seep, and provided a basic antiseptic.
mahler waited hopefully for wylla to ask her questions. he wanted to speak now, and swiftly: that the children were not his own, that he had been asked twice — three times if iana was counted, not something to mention even in his mad pursuit of wylla's trust.
he must mention none of them, but answer directly if she did. decided months prior. it was the only way to mend what had been destroyed.