when water is as thick as blood

Amalia

'Cause she's just like the weather
Can't hold her together
Born from dark water
Daughter of the r a i n and s n o w

The ability of Wessex to always know where she is is something Amalia will never understand, infinitely setting the girl on edge. A half-smile answers the woman's warm greetings, sheepish and insecure. Jyoti shifts and twists and stirs, intrigued by this new sort of relationship, a strange collection of muddled emotions which leaves the girl in waves. Amalia for her part tries not to dwell: there are too many things to pick just one, and if the thinks upon them all she will drown beneath it all.

She waits, a child once again, for her elder to guide her actions and thoughts. Guidance is something the girl relishes: which is not to say she is not independent. More it is a reflection of how long she has been on her own, directing her own actions, never knowing if the path she travels is correct. There are few guideposts in the baker's life, but Wessex has always been one of them.

Though given the divisiveness of recent events, it is hard to say whether that will change.

There is so much to say that she cannot know where to start, but Wessex once more acts as guide. "We do," Amalia agrees, raising her hand to stroke the starwhale who sits upon her back. "This is Jyoti. She fell out of the sky during a storm while I was captured by the Far, and I flew up to rescue her, and now I guess we're bonded." It is the tl;dr version, straightforward and devoid of the emotions that lurk beneath. It is the only way she has been able to tell it: hide the anger, hide the fear. Facts are all the girl can look at, because everything else is too heavy to hold.