Moonsong Glacier through the fog of an early morn

she is quiet again, and frowning, and thinking.

mother called us her conclave. i think it is like family. but there was more to it. a conclave could be only two from what sulukinak had discerned, but she did not want to think back to that night where things had become tempestuous; the meanings of things had changed abruptly, then.

and lodge is something like family. she mused. but the hunter man you ran with, it is his word. there was an implication there which sulukinak did not know how to parse, but her frown lifted and she looked upon dutch with fondness, and wonder.

why had he gone to run with the seal hunter man if not to join his lodge? if not for the sake of conclave? sulukinak did not yet realize that two men could not follow the same route as her mother; they could be fathers, which was a concept wholly alien to her.

there was a women's meeting on the plains. they spoke of women changing, and coming in to power. in the taking of husband. she did not know that these were sacred talks, that they should not be shared with men or else the men would have been included; but she spoke candidly, always, and remained oblivious. is that what your brother has done? taking husband? is that... what you did, when you went to seal hunter man?

so then wasn't lodge the right word to use?