Redsand Canyon You've only known the ones who leave at dawn

germanicus did not know what plans skimmed the darker parts of crowfeather's psyche. the words if i do not have to see your wife thrummed through his mind. the eagle was at once defensive of ruenna and then racked with shame that she should lie tending their children while he was here. 

there existed a deeper guilt in the fact that germanicus did not understand the nuances of love between a man and his wife. his being and reined emotion had only ever been shaped by his time with his common soldier.

and beneath all of that was the desire to understand it. germanicus was very fond of ruenna and she had just recently performed something reverent and eloquent and honorable down to the very names she had spoken.

but he felt he might wish to comprehend and appreciate all of her whether or not she had brought children into the world and it was somehow resistant to reconciliation against the emotions which swept him now. 

it was desperation. it was anger. it was frustration. it was a vulnerability which he exhibited nowhere else. and it was not the shadow's to hold, not any of it. and so he did not answer the firm mention of how he had engaged with crowfeather.

"the tablinum where lady aquene does her work is made for rest and no observation save for her own." he knew his wife would need time for her recuperation but he would not promise crowfeather that the matrona might not walk across her own land. he would need only to be more diligent than before. the equestrian's office would be suitable and ensconce crowfeather far from the figure he refused now. 

"i will help you there when you are ready." the imperator looked unseeingly at the water.