The Heartwood graunsheika

all that they had built came apart. heda, grateful for towhee's firmer sense of love, turned helplessly toward the children. but her voice was weak then to stop them, and again she fell back upon her mother-in-law's strength.
now given the necessary guidance, she began to kiss the small heads of the little ones. she begged malakai to stay put and dashed after dinah; she tried to keep an eye on ava and simeon in all of this, though her attention was lastly diverted with a cry of "ana?"
more tears, more cries.
more delay, until the truth of the matter grew clearer and clearer: that ana would not come home, that she had lost one to the shadows and the other to the mainland.
and the list of heda's failures grew.