Dragoncrest Cliffs This place of loss

lafayette was not himself when he answered his sister's summons. this bedraggled, unkempt man was far from the kind-eyed genteel youngster once before. 

and, yet, he came, dragging himself along with heavy step to sit in glassy-eyed query.

what now? he wondered. and why had shadess called them? his gaze cut sideways toward sobeille in faint question; his older sister had taken much command, especially of the babies that had been foisted upon them all of a sudden. 

had something changed within their ranks?

did any of it matter? 

lafayette's shoulders sagged, jowls drooping in a wolfish frown.