>_> <_< >_> (402)
Tayui was surprised to hear that Eris felt closer to her father than her mother. Tayui thought so highly of Kaena that she forgot that the aging warrior would probably have some enemies. And given the number of children she had, she was bound to have a falling-out with one or two of them. Tayui couldn’t even think of having that many children and then being expected to love them all. It had been difficult enough raising the four on her own, but she recognized it was even more difficult to have none at all and not know how they were doing. She had pushed Claudius away and now she paid the price. She had lost Noir and Ocèane, but Attila had come back to her. It was all so confusing. She supposed Eris’ identification would be like Claudius renaming himself as Claudius Soul and calling Haku father and Tayui just the birther. It sickened her.
“This might be me, but if he were my father…” she began, and then paused. Should she really say this? Whatever. “I’d want to be my own wolf. Not the last vestige of a rapist and not the daughter among many. I suppose it’s hard to strike out on your own when you have such a large family, but pretending you’re related to Salvaged more than you are Kaena seems…” she trailed off and then shrugged. “It was complicated. Sal had a few children and Fatin had thought she really loved him, but he just abandoned her like he’d done to the others.” Bitterness crept into her voice now. She had become so close to the red-hued woman that not feeling angry for her would have been wrong. “He had his good days, but his legacy was always there. Azathoth was formed with the purpose of murdering him. By the time Kaena did, he had hurt a lot of good wolves. And all of his children left. None of them are around anymore as far as I know. I saw Tsunami a few years ago. Thanos’ daughter, Dierdre Rhiannon, was around these parts at one point. Ophelia had a pretty big litter, too. Oh, and Tsunami’s son Bane was in the old parts a few years back. Dierdre had a son – Sirius – I met. He’s your… something. I don’t know. You have family, yes, but… they’re not Salvaged. They’re their own wolves.” They found new life.