She has never been particularly good at categorizing her own emotions into something she can understand. If she had been, perhaps she would not have gone to Nerine so many times in her youth, always searching for something she couldn’t quite put words to. In the end though, it had been that endless seeking that had brought her to Nashua.
And she would never trade what she shares with him, even to spare all the recent heartache they have experienced.
Yet, never once had she considered her upbringing somehow faulty. Never once had she doubted her mother’s love for her. What vague memories she carries of her father have never truly had the power to sting her. Before, she had always imagined that her experience was simply the way of the world. Though she knows better now, she also knows there is nothing she could have done to change it.
That, more than anything, had always been Noel’s method of dealing with troublesome truths. If she could change it, she would try. If she could not, it is not worth her energy trying to do so.
Ryatah pulls her into her embrace, and Noel leans in, drawing comfort from her mother’s familiar warmth. It has been so long since she had last been here like this, and for a moment, she feels like a child again.
The feeling slips away much too quickly however. She is not a child anymore. She has children of her own now too. It’s a sharp reminder of why she is here, and slowly, she withdraws as Ryatah releases her. It’s almost on her tongue to say yes, an automatic response to such a simple question. But she doesn’t. She can’t.
Because everything is not all right.
“No,” she whispers instead, gaze dropping briefly as she draws in a breath. “No, it’s not.” She lifts her gaze, unable to hide the worry in her dark eyes. “Bolder, my son, is here. He was… stolen here.”
- noel
@Ryatah