Safe Return

Ice filled the young woman, and she drew in a sharp breath as Vali's words washed over her. Die of starvation? of dehydration? She was that bad? She knew she had been delirious and had been out of it for a long time, but she didn't realize... one look at Vali made Lillianna realize that that had been the intent. Vali hadn't wanted her to know the extent of her injuries, and how far she recovered. She'd kept that purposefully hidden. Anger flashed in her eyes briefly as she stared in disbelief at the white woman, and she shook her head roughly even as she saw the regret in Vali's eyes. Regret what, though? Not telling her? Or having to finally say something in front of her? Or that it happened at all? Lillianna didn't know, but she did know that now was not a time to approach that subject.

Instead, for once in her life, she kept her mouth shut, and simply listened as Bass responded. Okay, yeah, not telling anyone was stupid. But how was she supposed to know that anything bad would happen? She never told anyone about her trips; nothing bad ever happened - nor would it, or so she thought. She bit back a sigh, and instead tried to school her expression into neutrality, but she wasn't sure how well she worked. Truth was, she felt rather awful about the whole thing, and felt guilty as hell - especially as she kept glancing at Lark and him only moving close enough to hear, but still pausing so far away. On one hand, perhaps she should be glad of that; she didn't even know what to begin to say to him.

Pain flashed in her eyes again as she looked away and down at the ground, even as Vali answered Bass' question - by admitting that they didn't think to; that it wasn't supposed to be a long trip, only a few days. That was certainly true, Lillie agreed.

She kept her head down even as Bass spoke again, though her ears pricked at his words. Welcomed... but at the bottom. She supposed it made sense, but she couldn't help the stab of disappointment in her heart at it. She didn't expect to walk back in without consequences, but there had still been that sliver of hope... oh well. She was accepted again, right? That's what she wanted... right? A wince crossed her face as Bass flat out said that he believed she was smarter than that. She wanted to protest - to explain that she thought that the mother had been killed previously, or that the baby had gotten more than far enough away - but a glance at both Lark and Bass merely had her grimacing and looking away again, biting her tongue.

She wouldn't be able to find the right words, and she could just imagine the scorn from the both of them, so she just kept silent. There was no use protesting - they were damned anyway. It was a bittersweet moment, and Lillie really just wanted to go to sleep from it. Still, hearing her name made her glance up, and listen to what Bass had to say - a new officer, huh? Asha. Hmm. Training her, too, but to be overseen by Finch due to being demoted. Interesting situation there, really. Lillianna nodded her agreement, not trusting her words even as she thought more of the situation.

Finch didn't have the knowledge to train Asha herself, but she had to watch Lillie train Asha because Lillie technically no longer was a high enough rank to actually train without supervision. It actually made her head hurt a little bit. It made her brighten a little bit, though, the thought of seeing Finch and being useful by training - but on that same thought, it darkened her mood further because she had no idea how Finch would react to her absence.

She guessed she'd find out at some point.


"Speech" "Language" "Farrym"