Sleepy Fox Hollow sehnsucht

her last words curled, struck snakebit into his senses: the insinuation that he did not care about diaspora when he had poured himself into knitting them together.
the general was truly incensed now; he thrust down the hurt and let the red sheen of his anger rush forward.
"you do vhatever you please, takiyok," he spat. let her be the only one in diaspora to bring a man into their midst, let her prove him correct. 
"none of this mattered vhen stigmata lived," mahler cut, tearing into that wound for the both of them. "none of this mattered vhen you believed you vould be the only vone to give birth in our land."
a vivid image came to him now: takiyok straining against him, crying out as she struggled to birth his kill-brother's large brood. had she forgotten all of that?
"if vhat i did vith my own body vas not so important, then you vould not seek to judge me for it," mahler snarled, and now he was striding toward her.
he would not throw his rank in takiyok's face; he respected her even despite the way she regarded him now, but lip curled.
"i am not stigmata. do not punish me because he broke your heart, takiyok." 
to the rest he was silent. he had ensured diaspora's success as its general despite all the children the ironstar had left behind. he would not defend her doubts.