Hotaru
Her heart warms helplessly at the girl's care, so rarely seen and so offhand, but Hotaru knows her too well to not see it plain. "I try. This has been a good go of it so far." A conspiratorial wink, and another handful of ash, and Hotaru lets the conversation steer elsewhere.
Her teeth grind against her will when that 'elsewhere' is exactly where she'd feared. But her anger and injustice will do Melita no good. Hotaru can scarcely even have civil reunions with Sunjata these days, i wouldn't be worth burning that progress to the ground over the young woman when she is clearly fine. Perhaps not fully at peace with the whys and hows, but flourishing on her own regardless. Incapable of answering without some sort of poison lacing her tongue, Hotaru works on swallowing it down instead. Refocusing.
"It's not you individually I worry about so much," Hotaru says, measured and slow, weighing her words carefully so as not to insult the young woman. Instead she sits back, butt on her heels and kneeling in the ash, and regards Melita plainly. "Sunjata is Frey's demigod, and Nate is The Voice's. They've made their choices as men, as husbands. I don't know where you stand in the war, or if you do at all, but your involvement with them may make you a target. Someone who is seen to be too in the middle." And strong as Melita is, she is Ru's. Not quite a child beneath her wing, but something similar, and as such she is afforded the protection Hotaru gives all those she loves. "If you're wounded or otherwise need to lay low, prepping the house could be a good idea, even if it's something you work on slowly."
Her teeth grind against her will when that 'elsewhere' is exactly where she'd feared. But her anger and injustice will do Melita no good. Hotaru can scarcely even have civil reunions with Sunjata these days, i wouldn't be worth burning that progress to the ground over the young woman when she is clearly fine. Perhaps not fully at peace with the whys and hows, but flourishing on her own regardless. Incapable of answering without some sort of poison lacing her tongue, Hotaru works on swallowing it down instead. Refocusing.
"It's not you individually I worry about so much," Hotaru says, measured and slow, weighing her words carefully so as not to insult the young woman. Instead she sits back, butt on her heels and kneeling in the ash, and regards Melita plainly. "Sunjata is Frey's demigod, and Nate is The Voice's. They've made their choices as men, as husbands. I don't know where you stand in the war, or if you do at all, but your involvement with them may make you a target. Someone who is seen to be too in the middle." And strong as Melita is, she is Ru's. Not quite a child beneath her wing, but something similar, and as such she is afforded the protection Hotaru gives all those she loves. "If you're wounded or otherwise need to lay low, prepping the house could be a good idea, even if it's something you work on slowly."
from the base of her neck to the arch of her eyelids
her beauty made a slave of me
her beauty made a slave of me
