Adna is old enough that she is suspicious of whatever lives between Leliana and Dovev. Suspicious of how flustered her usually unflappable mother was when her dad had told her about his steel. Suspicious of the way her mother’s wings sometimes turned from serpentine to onyx and ivory bone while she slept. Still, she has nothing but youthful intuition and can’t imagine her mother loving anyone but her father so she says nothing, yet. Instead, she curls into his side, happy to have her friend wrapped around her.
At his clipped words, she just rolls her eyes, all attitude and disbelief. “Sure you will,” she sighs, her voice exasperated. “You’re so stubborn. Just let her heal you.” It would make her mother feel better, she’s sure, and she can’t imagine her dad takes much pleasure in keeping a sick man captive.
When his voice turns dull, her gaze sharpens a little, sage eyes bright beneath the gentle sweep of obsidian forelock. She twists to look up at him for a moment, searching his face before dropping her gaze to the ground, humming in her throat as she thinks. “I don’t know how happy she is,” she says quietly, frowning a little as she looks out, the sun warming her face. “I mean, she’s happy.” He mother was always happy. Always kind. Pulling them close to kiss their faces, curling lovingly into her father’s chest.
“But sometimes I catch something I don’t understand on her face.”
She shrugs, looking up at him out of the corner of her eye. “She was pretty upset when she found out my dad stole you here.” Adna had been thrilled—but she didn’t understand the concept of someone not wanting to be near her. “She kept telling him that you had family and children and that you shouldn’t be forced to be near her if you didn’t want to.” Her frown deepens as she glances up again, trying to find an answer to a problem she didn’t even understand in his black gaze.
“My dad said that you could leave once you apologized to her.”
She takes a deep breath, trying to unwrap all of the pieces.
“Why do you need to apologize?” Then, a little quieter. “Why don’t you want to be near us?”
howl at the half moon, radio queen. she's all smoke. she's all nicotine.