Inner Storms [Harbingr]

She smiled as he confirmed her suspicion. To his remark, she shrugged.

“I tend to run myself ragged, as my cousin puts it, during Autumn. This is me forcing myself to relax, although the Festival was a lovely distraction.” A blithe lie, easily spoken with no sign of the truth. Wear the mask, don’t let them see the pain.

Aurielle’s smile grew, genuine as Harbingr spoke that he had been well. From what she could tell of Ashen’s borders, the population was booming and thriving. A small part of her envied the Empress’s successful pack, but she didn’t give herself overt to that small dark seed.

A pause—just the faintest beat answered his own inquiry to her wellbeing. Was she well? Physically, yes. Her heart was sick with impending loss and losses already felt. But she grinned and shook her head, admitting, “I’m well enough. I must say, Empress Deathbelle’s children are beautiful. They look like they’ll be powerful wolves in their time.”

A genuine compliment, and a deft deflection from herself as she smiled. There was, perhaps, a faint wistfulness and a softness to her tone as she spoke of the pups. True, she’d not missed their very much ‘mightier than thou’ attitude, but with an Empress for a mother and an Abraxas for a father – and knowing the attitude of the Abraxas wolves as viewing themselves as godlings – she wasn’t surprised. Children would generally do as they were raised to believe, until they were old enough to see the world as it was and make their own trails in the forest of life.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think