Redhawk Caldera opalescent

This was it, this was the conversation that they'd both been avoiding. The distance that had been conjured between them by the arrival of their beloved daughter now facilitated an explosion of — what could he call this? For him it was rage; for Teya maybe it was more like yearning, because what else could send someone in to the arms of another lover but loneliness? Grief? She grieved now openly; weeping for some lost part of herself. Reyes couldn't fathom her tears. He refused to witness them and tried to look away but her words were like hot iron lancing through him.

I'd rather send you away than have you present.
You have what you wanted.
Anything other than being a mother!

I didn't want you around? You sent me away. If it had been my decision I would have been here for her birth; that was you. Its all you! His voice erupted with a flow of such exasperation! He wanted to shout and scream at her, twisting everything! Always the thought of Sorana there waiting in the dark, sleeping through the brimming emotions and the slicing words.

He was cooling now, and tired. The emotional bone-deep exhaustion that came when every ounce of feeling was utterly spent. It made his next words sound chilling rather than empty and he couldn't help that.

I know what I said. I know that we were both against having a family, and I thought — I, what was the point of talking about this? Even now Reyes was resistant to it. He shuddered a breath. His eyes were glossy in a way he'd never experienced as an adult and he hated her for that. I thought we were agreed, so I said what I said. And now she's here, and I've changed. She's my daughter Teya; what the hell do you want from me?

If he had to choose between mother and daughter, he'd already made up his mind, and so far as Reyes understood it - so had she. Isn't that why he'd been sent to fetch Bridget? He paced, wanting to draw away from her and the den, and everything, and just hide from it all.