[Training] threading the needle

WESSEX out of the night that covers me What it’s like to be one as a woman? Wessex flashes the Abandoned a curious, searching gaze, genuinely a little confused as to what she’s on about. Being coy? Dancing around the real question? “Same as being a male Ascended, I imagine. I’m not quite following. Are you asking about sex, or having babies, or other normal female functions?” She glances back down to her arrow, stripping it down to its essence as her Lady stripped Wessex down to her most essential parts: her mind and soul. “I have always been more masculine than feminine. Harsher. Blunt. A weapon. But I think it surprises people more now when I show kindness or maternal instincts. As if Ascending should have killed all the womanly things in me. So there is the perception about what you are to battle against, if that kind of thing matters to you.” And there are more who don’t know Wessex than do. Those who never saw her with Magrethe, never grew up with the little wild child, who would alternate at play fighting and making daisy chains. Never saw how she watched over Amalia and a couple of other children - how she was trusted with them. Now she is only an Ascended. Without looking at Rexanna, she continues pressing. “You’re thinking of joining us?” black as the pit from pole to pole i thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul