with a reverence unimpaired

Amalia does not see the ring of watching fae until they hurry away, sent scuttling by Delah's snake-like words. She is wrapped in the starwhale, the feeling of it on her skin but also in her soul, like another heartbeat beside her own. The creature is delightfully playful, its - her - voice a song on the breeze, coos and clicks and rumbling notes unlike a anything Amalia has ever heard. Then they are alone, the baker and the warrior and the whale. Amalia peers over the starwhale's back, blinking as though seeing Delah for the first time. "Yes," she answers simply, and knows it to be true. "Her name is Jyoti." This, too, she knows to be true. Reaching out with slender fingers, Amalia strokes Jyoti's belly, sending the calf into a fit of squirming coos. Excitedly she darts away, circling twice around Delah before returning to the baker's side, stardust in her wake. Amalia Her eyes, they know too much. She'll treat you like somebody but you just can't touch.