He knew of no atrocities that Ru had committed, but even if he had the courier was, first and foremost, Halovian. A survivor. And one whose loved ones would always come first and be given every benefit of the doubt, no matter how heated their arguments became. What the Valkyrie had been and done in the past mattered not at all compared to what she had done in the year they had known each other.
Through his own pain he was beginning to awaken to the darkness in her, however. Hollow voice and hollow eyes and arms that wrapped around him as much in possessiveness as comfort. He had thought to hide in her arms for a little while, knowing that Ru, predator that she was, would understand the twisting guilt inside him in a way his blood sisters couldn't.
But something wasn't right. He'd never seen her like this before.
And then, for a moment, she was the Ru he remembered. Advice: stern and wise, gentle but firm. She held him until his ribs creaked but he didn't protest, relishing the proof that she was here and alive and not a dream. For the moment it was just words; well-meaning and honest but empty. In the hours and days ahead they would play in his mind at odd moments as he put them together piece by piece and come to understand them and find the truth that she had learned long ago. For tonight it was enough just to hear them.
And then--
"...I... no, I don't... Delia ran away an' Evie'll live an' I heard Sah made it but..." He heard the 'else' and his mind spun, frantic, running down the list of the dead that he had carried to the place they were building the pyre. Neighbors. People whose faces he knew but whose names he'd never learned. Friends of friends. But on one... "Else?" he asked, voice small, wavering, wondering who he'd missed in the cataclysmic events of the day and the quiet nightmare of what had come after.
Through his own pain he was beginning to awaken to the darkness in her, however. Hollow voice and hollow eyes and arms that wrapped around him as much in possessiveness as comfort. He had thought to hide in her arms for a little while, knowing that Ru, predator that she was, would understand the twisting guilt inside him in a way his blood sisters couldn't.
But something wasn't right. He'd never seen her like this before.
And then, for a moment, she was the Ru he remembered. Advice: stern and wise, gentle but firm. She held him until his ribs creaked but he didn't protest, relishing the proof that she was here and alive and not a dream. For the moment it was just words; well-meaning and honest but empty. In the hours and days ahead they would play in his mind at odd moments as he put them together piece by piece and come to understand them and find the truth that she had learned long ago. For tonight it was enough just to hear them.
And then--
"...I... no, I don't... Delia ran away an' Evie'll live an' I heard Sah made it but..." He heard the 'else' and his mind spun, frantic, running down the list of the dead that he had carried to the place they were building the pyre. Neighbors. People whose faces he knew but whose names he'd never learned. Friends of friends. But on one... "Else?" he asked, voice small, wavering, wondering who he'd missed in the cataclysmic events of the day and the quiet nightmare of what had come after.
