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She lapsed into silence then, her svelte hands linking together in her lap as she was pulled in by her aunt. She was glad no more questions were being asked about the incident — how she'd love to just block the memory out and pretend it had never happened — but she knew even without everyone's concern, she would be left to listen to her own muted memories in fear. Maybe it would be a lifelong thing; maybe his hoarse voice would echo in her head for the rest of her existence, and she would never truly get away from him. She looked up into the knowing blue eyes of her aunt, hoping some of the reassurance there applied to her mental state.
Yeah, she murmured. She had told Gabriel almost immediately after they had got home from the hostage exchange. She hadn't been able to tell if he'd been more angry than when he first saw her (and likely assumed everything was Haku's fault) or less, but either way, she didn't entirely want to know. She had never seen her father so absolutely livid, and could only imagine if the outcome had been worse. A gentle shiver licked its way slowly up her spine, sending tremors throughout her body; what would he have done if Haku had told him that his daughter had died in Dahlia de Mai?
Okay. Thank you, Rach. Esper Hollow. She had no idea where it was, but it sounded like a nice kind of place. She would find it when she felt well enough to travel that far again, even though she dearly disliked going very far from home. The "again" caught her, however; she'd know Andre was an exile from Inferni, and was her dad's half brother and Rachias' blood brother, but she hadn't known he had hurt anyone else. What did he do before? she whispered, a last question before they likely would part ways. She felt a little better now than she had before, and as she looked at her dilapidated castle with the footprint in the side, she could almost feel the slightest relief radiating through her bones.