Sink her heart it did, for the moment Zafier told of what happened to Foxglove her heart dropped into her stomach and her blood turned to ice. What!! How did this all happen and she hadn’t known anything of it? Niro didn’t send word… But, at least Zafier and Ayita assured her that everyone was okay. Still, Foxglove had been abducted? She winced visibly as thoughts of what had happened to the girl sprang to her imagination. It wasn’t right, Orin thought, that she wouldn’t have known her own family, her own flesh and blood had been in such peril – and that she hadn’t been there for Niro at the time.
“I… I…” she stammered, searching for something to say but coming up with nothing. Her eyes met Ayita’s visage and the cool look behind those eyes promised her that everything was okay, that there wasn’t some grave detail they were leaving out to spare her. She breathed a shaky breath and then nodded slowly. “I didn’t know… I’m glad everyone made it out okay. Your mate is a great king.”
And what was this? More news and details she didn’t know. She’d been vaguely aware of her growing family through short messages she and Niro occasionally shared, but she hadn’t known any of the details. “I didn’t realize that much time had passed already.”
She settled into a seat and leaned back, her eyes going blank for a moment as she tried to dash any worries from her mind. What could she do about it now – go hunt Niro down and wake him and his family up in the middle of the night? Well, that was a very classic Orin move and something she’d have been fully up to… if only she wasn’t so tired. There was no way her sore legs were going to take her all the way to the Takekuro homestead, and that mare out there wasn’t going to budge for her either.
She rubbed the back of her head for a moment and then turned her attention to the food. “Thank you so much, this looks wonderful.” Trying not to show off just how ravenous she was – and failing miserably – she grabbed the first hunk of meat and shoved the whole thing into her mouth, nearly swallowing it whole. Guilty eyes looked at Zafier sheepishly, and she took her time on the next item. “So the war is coming to the Court? Are you sure? Because of Foxglove?” Her questions only stopped because she’d shoveled too much food into her mouth to keep talking around, but she soon found a moment to keep going. “Do you know when? Do you need more protection, more men?”
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