JUNIPER
you think i'm happy because i'm smiling,
but it's the easiest thing to do
Juniper nodded, smiling slightly. "We can certainly try."but it's the easiest thing to do
She would have liked to say that they had a long time to work on it, considering how long Fae and Ascended lived -- but that was assuming they didn't destroy each other in the next few years. And even with that granted, she had a feeling that the longer this feud went on, the more difficult it would become to truly make peace.
Another nod: Juniper didn't need Bastien to tell her who had led the mission to attack the Mathair. The names of the three survivors were practically tattooed inside her skull. Wessex Theskyra, Amun Arlun, and Samuel Wordsworth. But she didn't bring that up to Bastien; she, too, wanted to leave that unpleasant business behind. (Perhaps if she'd known of his relationship to one of the deceased attackers, Rexanna, she would have felt differently, but she'd only ever focused on the living murderers.)
Instead, she smiled back, his questions bringing up thoughts of home. "I'm not surprised that you've never been -- my people do not welcome outsiders to the heart of our lands. The Sea of Branches is open to outsiders, but ... perhaps not Ascended. We do make art, of many kinds -- we are known for our jewelry, our leatherwork, our architecture and craftswork. I'm not an artist myself -- I was a hunter, before I started to reach out to other peoples. But I've lived my life surrounded by the beautiful things my people create."
if you looked a little closer,
you'd find my eyes aren't smiling too.
you'd find my eyes aren't smiling too.
