Noctisardor Bypass bedauert

What Wylla wanted was a promise that he would not allow it to happen again, but Mahler offered a more mature view. It was impossible that neither of them would ever misstep again. It was impossible for her to expect him to promise as much.

So they would apologize. Wylla would make due with that.

What came next had her shuttering the windows to her heart, for she misheard his intentions. How fitting that he would hold fast so long as she was gone, then return to his ways now that she was here! She remembered a similar reason for his past actions, and something in her gaze began to chill upon that assumption. How foolish of her. She never stopped to think he might mean in other ways; it had been for Diaspora, before, so it must be the same now, she thought.

Even the bit about being beholden as leader, which should have clued her in that he meant something else, served to reinforce a sudden surge of worry.

So, she said slowly, forcing words where cool winds wished to blow in the face of misunderstanding, You have contracts to keep, then? It wasn't like she could give him children this year, so it made perfect sense he might seize the opportunity.

Shuddering gates yearning to close on what openness she had offered, held only by rusted hope that that was not what he meant.