wish i had a river i could skate away on

I'm fine. A rush of relief that she hadn't expected flooded through her veins. It was hot and cold at the same time - the strangest sensation. As this feeling overwhelmed her she gave Thalia her full attention, blue eyes widening when she mentioned that their own leader had perished in the eruption. "I'm sorry," she said earnestly, her own voice heavy as lead. That was one thing she could understand, maybe better than anyone. Thalia's words cut her to the core and brought her own loss to the forefront of her mind. Blinking back tears, she looked away and inadvertently back towards Shaye's grave. Had they both lost their leaders? Someone they'd looked up to and trusted had been brutally erased by a careless act of god.

"It changes everything, doesn't it?" She said, her eyes shining with unspent tears. I'm not sure what we're going to do. Oh, she felt that felt right down to her bones. What were they going to? The landscape of their world had been rocked and splintered. How did you even go about rebuilding this kind of mess? Maybe Shaye would have had answers, but Theory didn't.

"Abaven is well... I'm," Theory's voice broke and she bowed her head, embarrassed. The pageantry of her arrival was swept away, what little of it there had been. Tears slipped from her eyes and the cold spring air licked her cheeks cold. "My mother and our former alpha is dead," she croaked, unable to keep a whimper slipping from between her teeth, no matter how hard she tried to choke it down. There, it was over. She'd turned her insides out in front of her and Thalia could choose to react however she'd like. Shaye's death was too painful to keep a secret, even to a stranger. Theo had spent so long trying to remain strong for everyone else that it felt like a relief to finally let go.