one more day

i wish i was just as strong

Theo smiled awkwardly between the tears when Rhyme said that he had once loved Tana, or thought he did. How did you know for sure? If Rhyme, so wise and strong, made such a mistake... perhaps "love" was more like a steep, dangerous ravine. Even experienced travelers slipped up and the consequences were disastrous. Theory didn't want to ask any questions about Shaye. The whispers about the pair confused her, and she saw her sisters more like separate extensions of their parents. "Incest" seemed like such a dirty word for what had resulted in Poem and Motif.

His flat affect when he spoke of Tana's choice to leave surprised her, but she didn't let it show. "Why did she choose to leave? Abaven is safe, she would have been protected." I would have grown up knowing my mother, not the shadow she'd left behind. "It just doesn't make sense," she keened. Foolishly, she'd thought the tears were over, but it seemed like there were more to be shed.

"How do you know when love is real, then?" She muttered between tears, swiping angrily at her face with a paw. When that didn't work, she turned her face into Rhyme's chest to compose herself. His warm, familiar scent brought a temporary calm that stayed her tears for now. "It seems so... messy. Complicated."

as i make myself out to be