Arrow Lake fall down a rabbit hole

they crouched in silence for quite some time, mahler dividing his attentions between ketzia and her son. the boy slumbered; mahler did not think he would succumb to the fever, for he was strong even in infancy. 
had he known the woman’s thoughts, mahler would have agreed that himself, stigmata, and takiyok made a gentle threesome, but it was perhaps wrought now with tension.
at the touch of ketzia’s tense inquiry, mahler looked to her, beheld the expression of her lovely eyes. ”their binding vas contractual in nature,” he revealed softly, ”and i am sure there is affection between them.” but love? perhaps takiyok loved the fierce general; perhaps stigmata was blind.
”you love him,” mahler observed, gaze gone soft with a sympathetic knowingness. ”you vould not have borne his children if you did not.”