Redtail Rise jade

She broke free, but not without cost.  Her balance was off and her strength was fading.  This was not a challenge she could win.

There was a strange mixture of grief and of shame, realizing this.  It wasn’t them she was upset with.  It was herself.  She had failed them entirely, and the proof of it was laid bare in her first approach.  She had only needed this confirmation because she hadn’t been willing to accept it.

It was never hers to claim in the first place.

Redd collapsed down to the ground and remained there as the fight left her completely.  She would not lift her eyes to look at any of them, nor would she attempt to push this further.  She could not even if she had wished it.

It was done.  There was a new Wealda.  She did not know where this left her and, in this moment, found she could not care.  She would accept whatever came.  

She was theirs but they were no longer hers.  She felt the loss like a knife.