lepis, comtesse of taiga
RUN AND TELL ALL OF THE ANGELS; THIS COULD TAKE ALL NIGHT
i think i need a devil to help me get things right
‘Then come home’ he says, like it is a simple thing.
The redwoods have never felt like home the way that Loess does, but they have buried their roots deep since her arrival. Come summer, she will have spent three years in the northern forest. Three years of peace and budding friendships, three years of achingly slow progress, three years of memories. Some of those memories are sharper than others, and she allows the emotion to bleed into her expression as Castile reacts to her news of Taiga’s inheritance. He mentions all of the things that she knows, and Lepis nods.
He falls quiet to think, and she watches him. Not for the first time she wishes she had the ability to know what others felt. Not what they thought – she thinks Starsin’s ability must bring as much pain as it might joy – but just how they might be feeling, what way they might lean. Lepis knows each line of Castile’s face, though the shape of his purely equine face is not one she has seen often. To a woman who thinks her uncle something like a mythical creature, it is disconcerting to see him as mortal.
He is a handsome stallion, she thinks; but she does not envy Sochi for holding his interest. Lepis has never had the slightest interest in fire or the hot tempers that seem so prevalent with her draconic family. Castile names himself Taiga’s King and issues a command, and for a long time Lepis is quiet.
She is uncertain, but she cannot let it show. This is not a decision she had expected to make, not an offer she had expected to hear.
Rule Loess; be its Queen.
The words themselves seem almost golden, and Lepis almost nods without thinking. Her face certainly lights up, yet as he continues to speak the reality of her situation sinks in. Pteron is young for the position Castile names him to, and Aten is sure to object. Reia is also the last of her cousins she would have asked to represent Loess, though Pteron does seem fond of her. They spend a significant amount of time together anyway; perhaps if things go well she’ll nudge the two of them toward a more permanent union of Taiga and Loess in the form of heirs. There are barriers to the success of the plan that Castile proposes, but Lepis is sure she can carry it out. If she decides to, she reminds herself. Until she is back in Loess she is her own woman, able to make her own decisions.
A pity she doesn’t have an inkling whether she should accept Castile’s offer or not.
“Give me time,” she says, and it is neither an acceptance not a denial. “I need to speak to Pteron about this. Aten too, if I can find him.” The champagne protector has been more scarce of late, and given the faint scent of Heartfire she had caught month ago, and the faraway voice of her icy relative, perhaps he has good reason to suspect what might be coming. ”And to…and to Wolfbane.”
It’s almost an afterthought, and yet she realizes even as she says it that it is true. After everything, she still wants to know what he thinks. The realization brings a scowl of conflicting emotions to her face, but she can hope that her uncle assumes she is thinking of exactly what to say to each of the three mentioned. She is quiet for a long time once more, and she breaks it at last with a quiet and heartfelt: “Thank you.”
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