Emberwood Keeping time by a pendulum as the fabric starts to fray

It's... She hesitated. It's just complicated, is all. I was uh, I was - really young when we were together. A yearling. She was older. Much older.

My um, my ex-husband had just left me - it was before I married him. Confusing, I know, A brief, sardonic smile tugged at her lips as she said it and fell away as she went on. And she was there. I guess we both just sort of assumed we would spend the rest of our lives that way. Together. We never really talked about it.

I was pregnant and terrified, and - and honestly, half out of my mind. Hearing voices. She didn't care. She wanted to protect me. So I didn't question it, She looked away from the grave then, abruptly feeling as if she might burst into tears if she looked at it a moment longer. And then he came back, and it was over. Just like that. We didn't talk about that, either. But she hated me for it. I saw the way she looked at me.

And then I left. And then she died.

Tears filled her eyes, but she remembered Akavir's words. Save your act. She blinked them away and took in a breath.

And it's messed up, it is, but sometimes I wonder if leaving her was the biggest mistake I ever made.