I'm so perplexed it's almost shocking

If Epiphron was good at anything, truly good at it, it would be surviving. She had never found herself too overwhelmed to go on - even when her husband had abandoned her, even with the many family deaths she had been forced to deal with - she had always found a way to persevere. Her hopes now, that she was growing older, were far more simple than her childhood ones. She was content to live out her days here in Fiori, under Leo's rule, though if she said she had no wishes she would be lying. She longed for her children to all return, to know their families, if they'd started families of their own. But.. she was not unhappy in the least with how things were now.

She snorted at his comment, a chuckle escaping her throat at his words - flattering, but funny still. "I feel older than I look, surely," she'd comment idly, though her words were laced with some seriousness. "Someday you'll know how it feels." Sooner than Leo expected, though still quite a ways away. His words, about her absence, felt a bit too kind. "Expect me to be more present anyway," she told him seriously. It'd be good for her, anyway, to not spend so much time alone. "And you know you can always come to me for advice." She couldn't help but wonder how he was doing now that Svetlana's disappearance had been solidified; she was likely not coming home, at least not anytime soon, and she knew how difficult it could be to raise children all alone. Luckily, her children had been independent once she had found herself on her own, but it still hadn't been easy to navigate life that way.