She was dimly aware of the man's presence at the noise, and she did not start; she hardly moved at his approach, still clutching the broken and warm thing close to her, huddling over it and shielding it as a bird of prey with a fresh kill. Her chartreuse eyes trailed toward him but once, and returned to the sea and quiet contemplation. He spoke, and the sable-shaded woman did move this time, a shudder that seemed to wrack the entirety of her body, though as it passed, she became stiff and still as old stone.
He spoke again, and now she stood, swiftly, clutching the small child awkwardly with one arm. What did it matter if the little thing's brains got all scrambled up? Shibboleth had spent her first month of life drifting in and out of fever; she would be lucky to have even a quarter of a normal child's intelligence at this point. She moved toward him in swift steps, her free hand raised as if to backhand him. Terrible fire burned on all her features, unfiltered and without so much of an ounce of restraint mixed in with the fury there.
And then, it died, draining away as quickly as it had come, and she was left there teetering on her own feet, as if the wind that had ripped away her anger had taken every vestige of her strength along with it. Deadened chartreuse eyes looked at him, meeting his own pumpkin-orange gaze, and she spoke, though it was all soft defeat, lacking any further resistance. But she is mine.
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