Noctisardor Bypass the loxian gate

if heda was being honest, she was not sure such a bird existed. she had seen a fluting of yellow and that was all. but now she believed it had been feathers, and stuck with the assumption. if she was wrong, that was one thing, but she was not willing to simply pass up the opportunity.
"if she is our aunt, then you would also be related to praimfaya, i think." using her mother's full name provided heda with a sense of distance from the woman who had abandoned her. if she ever discovered that the commander had come back but not for her children, there might have been more anger in heda.
it was a credit to sequoia for having kept the girl so safe from a reality that did not yet need to belong to her.
"and then — wylla has phaedra, and she has mahler's eyes."
blissfully unaware of genetics, insulated from fatherhood; the great man had been such to her, and heda knew her eyes did not resemble his at all. 
she stopped babbling when druid turned her attention toward a huge heap of "scheisse!" she laughed out loud. "maybe a ... shark!" wylla had said they couldn't walk on land, but — heda checked her sister's face for a reaction.