She is a different woman now than when he knew her.
Lies and deceit have ensnared the once untangled chords of her thoughts. She’s no longer wholesome and untouched by the drama she’s always avoided, always scorned from others. She’s lied to one of the few horses she’s never meant hurt. And even if it is a lie by omission – a hidden truth, really – she’s still kept her secret longer than she ever should have.
At first it had bothered her, as it should. Tiphon was one of the constants in her life. She should hold onto him with every ounce of strength in her iron bones, because the constants were becoming less numerous every day. She should remember how her parents left her, how Lion and Tiberios vacated themselves from her company. She should make herself an anchor around his feet, because time pulled away everyone you loved sooner or later. But of course, she hadn’t listened to herself. Seeking the affections of another man was proof enough of her folly. Finding solace in Jason’s embrace was a temporary salve to her aching heart, and in the end, it hadn’t sustained her.
Eldrian was the only boon of the entire mess she’d made. The boy couldn’t help who his parents were or the tenuous, momentary hold they’d had on one another. He was a bright light casting away the shadows. He reminded Talulah of the woman she wanted to be: the mother, the friend, the constant for another. It had almost killed her to leave him in the care of another, but it was in his best interest. Until she told Tiphon the truth, it had to be that way (and he’d done enough gallivanting around of his own to find fault in her, she told herself every day, hoping it was true).
Today, she puts it all out of her mind. Maybe it’s irresponsible and reckless (so much of her is these days) but it’s necessary. Fall has once again come around and it’s impossible to believe it’s already been a year since that fateful day. She shakes her head and moves deeper into the land. The colors are as mesmerizing here as they are in the Dale, a splendor of earthen tones splashed about the trees and across the ground. The shimmering woman sticks out in such a world, unwittingly shining in her out-of-place way. It’s no matter, she thinks, I’ll only meet with strangers today. Just as soon as she’s thought it, though, she spots a black form lingering near the lake’s edge. An inkling of familiarity creeps into her brain. At first she doesn’t want to go to him. At first, she doesn’t want to confirm her suspicions.
She goes, of course. She always does.
“Tiberios.” It’s soft but stern as it slips from her mouth. As much as Talulah wants to berate him for leaving his family without a word, her own faults turn her tongue into lead. It has only taken his absence for her to really understand his former motivations, besides. He had loved her – or close to it, anyway – and she hadn’t realized her own feelings were so closely aligned. There had been others for all of them, though: Tiphon, Elysteria, Shatter Me. Their lives had become like snarled pipes, pressurized by the steam of their collective feelings for one another. The turmoil had needed a release; Tiberios’s leaving had provided it, as much as she hated to admit it. As much as she hates him being gone, even now.
“I’ve missed you,” she says, reaching to touch the curve of his neck before stopping herself. The words are already there in the space she puts between them. She can’t take them back, and maybe she wouldn’t anyway. The truth is a refreshing taste in her mouth that has been long stale with lies.
t a l u l a h
metal woman of the dale