Emberwood [m] Oh Ophelia, you've been on my mind, girl, since the flood

I just -

Her voice spilled from her against her own will, cracking, shivering,

I just want to know why.

The question she could not answer. Had she led him on? Was it the way she sometimes pressed against him in the night? His role in her children's lives? The role he held beside her? She felt sick.

I - I love you, Everett, but you - you're my brother. You were -

You were my safe place.

And now you aren't.

Her eyes burned with tears. Why would you ever think I would want that? With you? Grief burned, she thought. It burned so much like anger, until it could become nothing else and the words turned to venom pouring from her; Or - or maybe it wasn't that. Maybe you're just - just like Tybault. Like Atlas. Like dad. You all think - you think you own me and you don't. You never did, so just - just stop trying to control me -

She cut herself off as the words dissolved into halting tears. You don't own me, Reverie repeated, voice scarcely more than a whisper. No, she'd never belonged to The Gilded Sea as the others did. Reverie had always been far too stubborn for that; she chose her own fate, forged it in fire if she had to, and she would never give that up. Not for anyone.

This was not what she chose.