rising

Amalia

the shield of safrin

She has the decency to color up a little at his teasing, rolling her eyes in mock exasperation. "I don't lecture about everything-" and the question that lingers is genuine, her dark gaze suddenly insecure as she looks at his slender face. Do I? She hopes not. She wants to be tolerable, to be tolerant, to be liked. Her smile turns chagrined as she tuns away. "I... I'm sorry. If it seems like I do."

Discussion of her lost family softens her, the sting of sadness finally dulled to the point where she can speak of them without too much pain. "They were," Amalia agrees fervently, nodding as she begins to spread onion preserves over slices of bread. "My Nani - my grandmother - she was the one who taught me about the gods. And... and everything else, pretty much. She would talk to me when my mom and I fought, and when I would feel anxious and lost." Both things happened frequently when she was young, and only escalated with the Chandrakant matriarch died.

"After... after she was- was gone, I sort of stopped, um, stopped being part of things. I let the bakery fall apart and spent all my time in the Atheneum. I thought... I thought it would hurt forever." She quirks her lips in a mirthless smile, closing her eyes against the sudden rise of tears. "It still does."

you are slowly growing

but you are still growing

and that is enough