Neverwinter Forest mnēmē

Strange words fell on attentive ears.

How her eyes gleamed, how her mantle of fox spoke from the elegance of gentle draping. This word - a title, he guessed, for something as strong as her mother was.

This dignity, this womanhood, it suited her. It always had.

For a moment he looked to the ground, knowing he had become so much less than three curious boy she had been on the terrace many dreams ago.

I was taken. I never meant to leave, he said softly from the silence. Though he knew anyone who looked at him now would find that hard to believe, he had only been a youth then, orphaned and unrefined and easy to subdue with experience and numbers. Now, I am free.

With this, he lifted his eyes, shame burnt to nothing in their deep blacks.

So much still on his mind, but words could be left for future days.

This is your pack, then, and his eyes softened to a curious warmth. Are you mother, too?