flora
Flora wraps her arms around herself like a wind has cut straight through her, the motion small but unmistakably protective. She doesn’t meet Hadama’s eyes at first, choosing instead to fix her gaze on the ground. "I thought about it," she says quietly, voice a bit hoarse with restraint. "About just ignoring what she said and letting her try whatever she was gonna try."
Her fingers tighten subtly against her arms. "My dads would be fine, but Mateo? Sohalia?" Her voice wavers briefly, nose scrunching as she stubbornly blinks away the sting behind her lashes. "And Jack—" The word catches, but she forces it out. "Jack already told me he doesn’t feel safe around me anymore. He left. Said I was just making Torchline into a prison."
Her mouth presses into a thin line, the frustration of it all roiling beneath the surface like storm-tossed water, but when she finally looks up at Hadama again, it’s with a kind of weary resolve. "So unless she makes the first move—or unless I come upon a nest of revivify feathers—I’ll try not to violate her terms. I’ll play it safe, even if it means giving up the bar, or not staying in the city. I made the deal, so I’ll deal with the fallout."
Her fingers tighten subtly against her arms. "My dads would be fine, but Mateo? Sohalia?" Her voice wavers briefly, nose scrunching as she stubbornly blinks away the sting behind her lashes. "And Jack—" The word catches, but she forces it out. "Jack already told me he doesn’t feel safe around me anymore. He left. Said I was just making Torchline into a prison."
Her mouth presses into a thin line, the frustration of it all roiling beneath the surface like storm-tossed water, but when she finally looks up at Hadama again, it’s with a kind of weary resolve. "So unless she makes the first move—or unless I come upon a nest of revivify feathers—I’ll try not to violate her terms. I’ll play it safe, even if it means giving up the bar, or not staying in the city. I made the deal, so I’ll deal with the fallout."
My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you
And now I'm covered in you
