Jade Fern Grove lift back and see the darkness hid

"as vell as i can be," the gargoyle said genuinely. "a cold at the end of vinter caught me and left me vith this," he explained directly. "it is not so bothersome." 
mahler looked into the mallow-soft and earnest features of the duskfire physician. he could not say they knew everything between them, but his time with laurel had left him more sensitive to the things women left unsaid. something too harried her, though it was only assumptive and amorphous to him. "are you?" he ventured.