Duck Lake illusion; diverted

when merrick blinked they had arrived, his son, followed by the raven shadow. he roughly brushed aventus' shoulder with his own, pressed an anguished kiss to the rook, for in her he found solitude, not blame.
"we should leave for a time to search." his voice was a rutmarked hallway of emotion, tangled into one strangled thread.
the cyclops-gaze shifted to the tall and silent neophyte. blessed of the bear; unworthy as merrick was, he had been given so much.
were they wrong to search for avicus? had she been sacrificed to the great maw for a purpose?
contemplative. "and if we do, does he come with us? or stay here as prince?" merrick asked of his corvid. she would answer in her own way; his flanks drew a breath.