with a reverence unimpaired

"I did not-" lie, she means to finish, but before she can finish the protest a great paw shoves against her, sending her sprawling back. With a gasp Amalia hits the tree, her body easily succumbing to the smaller woman's strength: she is tired, weary from fighting that morning and flying again now. Still anger rises in her chest, tempered by exhaustion but blazing nonetheless. I came back! she wants to say. I had to do it, but I kept my word! But then the fae woman speaks again and all her protests, all her wrath, dies upon her lips. "No-" she chokes, shaking her head, disbelieving. It is not true - cannot be true-- "It was already falling-- we can send it back, we can go to Vi, to Safrin, and--" What was she meant to have done? What action would they have had her take? Shaking, Amalia clenches her fists. She cannot have doomed this creature to die. She cannot have failed now, when she came so close to success. She cannot-- A sputter of starlight surrounds the pair, radiant, sparkling, and Amalia immediately feels calm. As Delah spins and bows to the calf, Amalia can only stare, her black eyes caught by its galactic gaze, starlit and serene and wise and wondering. Frozen in awe and relief, the girl watches as the starwhale floats nearer, growing closer and closer to her face until-- --boop!-- A bond is formed, and a part of her heart she did not know was broken knits together and becomes whole. Reaching up to caress the whale behind its fin, Amalia begins to laugh, tears of joy tracking down her face as her new soulmate spins and trills. Amalia Her eyes, they know too much. She'll treat you like somebody but you just can't touch.