It’s hard to recall the feeling that made her leave him, and she knows that it cannot make any sense to Brigade, her going or her coming back now. It still might not if she could show him the inside of her head, especially since the birth of this perfect girl has erased the regret from the tangled pathways that lead to her creation.
Kensa has not forgotten—perhaps just carefully clenched in her fist—what it is to be pinned beneath his gaze. Her heart rails against her chest, her mind creating a dozen new fears. He is going to reject the girl and Kensa knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she’ll tear him apart before she permits it. He is going to break both of their hearts, and she will ruin something in the child when she fails to be strong. He is going to… Mine? Her fears grow silent, pushed back by the longing that creeps down her spine and up the back of her neck...but he’s only asking about the girl.
“Yes. Your daughter.” Her voice steadier than she expects it to be. “She favors you a great deal.”
Aloy is not content to be talked over. The child tosses her small head and her green eyes darken irritably. “What does that mean?” Kensa purses her lips, though this isn’t exactly what she was implying the annoyance on the girls face is so like an expression of her fathers that Kensa would almost be amused—but she finds that the bristling personality is much more attractive to her in Brigade than in Aloy.
—
@[brigade]
