Dragoncrest Cliffs The bottle stench may be here to stay

Rosalyn saw the hurt she'd wrought and took a step forward... but then stopped again.  This wasn't her barrier to overcome; she was not the one who had dug the valley that seemed to stretch between them.  And while it was her job to be the bigger one here, to construct the bridge, she couldn't banish the memory from her mind of Reyes pulling away.  A few weeks later at most and he was gone, never to be seen again.  

The ghost of it caught her and for a moment she almost broke, but she managed to stop it.  It wasn't often that the memory of the children they'd lost overwhelmed her, but the sorrow of it rode her just as well as it did Erzulie.  And on the occasions it came, it felt just as fresh as the day they'd left... though perhaps, in time, that would be taken from her as well.  

Fortunately she did not miss Chacal's words, the majority of them.  As always there was not a lot for her to catch.  Then ask them, Rosalyn answered, with emphasis.  She paused again, shutting her eyes, and let all thoughts of Reyes fade away.  She needed to solve this here, now.  More slowly, and with more patience than before, she continued.  

Your maman and I are proud of you, you and your brother, no matter what you do.  We only want you to be happy; silent or no, leader or no, even here or no.  We love you and will always try to understand, even if you cannot find the words, just so long as you try to ask.  But you have to try.  When you assume that we will not answer, or do not care, and you turn your back on us, we can do nothing.  Another step forward, cautiously.  We have always heard you.

They had done their best, since she was a child, and Rosalyn had grown accustomed in truth to the Chacal who did not speak.  Perhaps that was why she felt so hurt by this now; she'd been unprepared for her little bird to not only gain a voice, but to gain one that seemed to resent them so much and to accuse them of things that cut so deeply.  Her postures and her gestures, the sounds she had made... none of them had seemed to speak of the struggle she now laid at Rosalyn's feet.  So perhaps what truly hurt the most was that, in all of this, she had missed something so important.