Ouroboros Spine not today

I am not a mother yet —

she wished to say again but did not. her eyes squeezed shut and she listened to her heart for a moment.

"even mothers who did not bear their young first from their bodies."

her eyes open and she knew, in a way, what her mother meant to say. callyope loved a nephew like a son. perhaps in a way it was good she had not brought children from herself this year. she instead had devoted herself to him, to teaching him their ways so that he might grow as she had, as his mother had.

samani had never known her spirit name.

her heart ached all over again, to think her sister would never feel this spiritual tendril.

i will carry things as mothers do.

for herself, for panuk. for sisters lost.