Gyrfalcon's Keep Woodsmoke and oranges

there is a soft swell of pride, a boost to rusalka's ego as she tells him that out of the many others she could've had: she had only had him.

it is a superficial pride; shallow.

and yet, he feels it deeply all the same.

these conditions are fair. he comments, though her words, he felt, did not truly require one of him. beyond that, he was one to show in lieu of telling. words could be honeyed. webbed lies.

all too easily.