everything is different now

Vanta hadn't told a soul of the night on the beach, looking into the fire and seeing her mother for the last time in it's light. She hadn't told anyone of the inheritance she had received from Zee, or the way that a touch of it upon her eyes had changed them. Out of habit alone she still squinted her eyes shut during the day - more than familiar with the routes of the land of which she was raised - helpfully guided by the viper handed down to her, and wondering if her disability would ever return. Telling people was scary, it felt too important to divulge unless she was one hundred percent sure the cure would stick. Worse than that, she did not have a second of the magic bandaid for Kite to use. Or a third for Crux. If her mother knew the full extent of it's power, would she have even received it at all?

She waited for the night to head out into the woods, comforted by the familiar moonlight and not needing to worry about keeping appearances of being light-blind up beneath the stars. From there she hoisted herself into the branches of a gnarled tree, lowered herself to her belly, and put her head upon her paws to rest and to think. What did she do now?

"Speech"