Sawtooth Spire wolkenbruch

Mahler maintained his silence, choosing not to comfort her with words but with touch. She accepted it, was glad for it, and while a reluctance to let herself get too close kept her from leaning into the gesture, she turned her bright eyes toward his face to reveal a watery smile. A silent gratitude.

He did not need to know the fate of her newborns, though the tawny Ostrega feared the likelihood of Wylla's demand for information  if she knew the truth, Mahler would surely have been informed by now. Confident that her grim secret was safe with her, Nyx was content to let the topic of her past remain there where it belonged.

"I don't," she answered, a little confused by his offering in her ignorance of what the General felt for their former Alphess. Mahler had promised an opportunity for her to whelp in safety despite Takiyok's disapproval, but their arrangement had been made prior to Wylla's rise to leadership. Her opinion was irrelevant, she felt, but it did, rouse fresh wonder... "do you?"