Eris is by Kiri!
She did shake her head, unable to keep this motion from herself. Mothers and fathers both can wrong us, the woman said. She had come to that epiphany -- it was one of several very minor ones, things that had arisen in the wake of her greater change. Perhaps the others would not be so aptly phrased without further prompt -- for now, they were content to remain vague and murky concepts in her mind, a new tenet to which she must cling. We are what we make ourselves. She had made herself into a monster, but even monsters were not permanent things. It was a mask, placed on of necessity and discarded now with the discovery of greater purpose.
The compliment was received, heard, but deflected. She did not allow it to sink into her consciousness. There was atoning to do, and she would not accept such even if she hadn't seen through the stormy eyes and coal fur to the lizard-skin beneath. The dark woman almost gave in to the urge to turn and look on Siv, but did not. Instead, she looked away from the fire and the cerise-splashed ground to the ocean. Although shadowy and black, she could still see the endless motion of waves. There was always a play of moonlight there, silver dashed on black like Siv herself. Eris looked away again, back toward the earth and fire.
Eris was clutching for herself, trying desperately to hold what had come to her so unexpectedly. She might fail herself, but she had evolved beyond the clutches of the red-tinged woman and her ilk. Their truth was plainly seen even with her blinded and sightless eyes.
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