If you could take it all back

He stood to face her. And for the first time she noticed some changes about him. They were subtle, but still changes all the same. Whether it be the way he carried himself, or his demeanor, she knew he had had a pretty rough time of things, same as her. But still...the anger she felt at feeling abandoned by him and even moreso by their God...hurt. She kept telling herself she shouldn't care, but when she had devoted her whole life to the Abraxas...what else was she to do?

"It was guilt that kept me away, Ina, or were you so caught up in your own family that you hadn't heard? You were in hiding long before my exile." Her ears flattened back as she bit back a retort. She vaguely knew of what had happened, but she didn't know the full story. All she had to go off were whispers through the vines. "I admit, perhaps I was involved with my own dealings. Whereas yours I had only heard whispers of. The Long Nights were hard on all of us...I was afflicted by a strange sickness that left my mind in shambles, as well as my body. By the time I recovered..." It had all been too much. Only recently she had finally gotten over the remnants of the effects that had plagued her.

"You certainly made no effort to tell anyone in the pack that you were pregnant. You whelped in secret, never called for me as alpha of the pack that they were born into or as leader of your family! Their family! I called for you long before I left pack lands to discuss this, but you never came. Why is that, Proserpina? Why act now like you were abandoned when you hid yourself from me before I ever left?" Her teeth parted in a silent snarl, pale blue eyes narrowed as she felt offended. "I did not know I was pregnant until it was far too late! I thought it was the effects of whatever strange mushroom sickness had been going around! I hid away out of fear and embarrassment, unable and unwilling to show the weaknesses that had cursed me! But even on the dawn of my birthing when I cried out for help, your precious little mortal healer," She spat the words, the anger difficult to quell. "Never showed her face. Not once did she ever check on me or the pups despite my tortured cries! Instead, I was spared enough that a healer who bore no ties to Aerie was the one that saved my life, and those of my three remaining pups! Were it not for her, I likely would have died on our own border and been buried with the two that didn't make it!"

She was not trying to garner sympathy from her beloved cousin. Though she couldn't help but feel the sting of tears in her eyes when she relived the day she truly felt abandoned by Abraxas. "Asmodeus told me that his mother dared to insult our God. He was the only one to see me ill during the Long Nights...am I to believe he didn't bring his wrath down on us because of her doing? Or perhaps it was our fault for not being stern in our ways and teaching her? An insult to our God is an insult to us. And for that, he has cursed us! She snarled. She struggled to keep her emotions from boiling over. She still didn't know what Eli would do when he came across Ono, but she would address that when they got there. She firmly believed Riva's blasphemy had caused the ill fortune that had settled upon their family. There was so much she wanted to say to him, but for the moment, she held her tongue and allowed silence to hang between them until either he or she decided to speak.