Moonstone Quarry atugriaktuk k⋣

kukutux nodded gently. "it is not unknown for a man who has lost his wife to marry her sister. i have seen it done. but it is not for you, so it cannot be for me."

she would let this moment pass into her own mind, to be unspoken once more. and there would be no disappointment for ariadne to bear.

raimo entered her mind, unbidden, and kukutux put him out of it.

her face contorted; she dropped her eyes back toward the gifts and touched the softly accented face of the shell. "sialuk is anaa now, with her own village and her own children. you are second oldest, for kausiut is not here. i will need you in the moons that come, ariadne."

a breath.

"a woman walks forward, always."

the duck, refusing to let her melancholy slight so many things, now mustered a smile warm if not wan. "your brothers, they grieve. but they will become hunters this year. they too must turn their eyes toward a future."

her island child. her sea-traveling-girl. pain clutched at all of her for a dizzying moment. "we will remember her at winter hunting."

she had failed to gather the words for that, and so it had not yet been arranged. "the caribou gather in the taiga. let us come together and remember your sister when we prepare for the long snows."