Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

Laura let his lack of response go and turned her eyes to the fire. "If you change your mind, I'm sure Sera can find you something. You can get them custom made, you know."
"I know." Gaius wanted very much to stop talking about his leg, now. Especially since he was regaining sensation in that particular extremity and none of them were good. He really should have just let General Zander chop it off when it was first broken. That would have saved everybody a lot of trouble.

The soup was simultaneously dumping new life back into her and at the same time utterly exhausting her to eat. She was more than half way through now.

"Should I let Tomhas know you're here, Ky?" Laura asked after an awkward silence between her and Gaius.

Ky's stomach lurched, and she looked up guiltily. Wick had probably already told him; and if he hadn't, then Gaius surely would sooner or later. Tomhas was her authority figure now -- and authority figures had a right to know if you were about to go off the deep end.

It didn't mean she had to be happy about it.

"Oh, uh, if, you, uh..." She shrugged, looking back at the bowl. "Whatever you think is best."

"I'm asking you," Laura pointed out.

Ky flushed, looking up again. Yet another choice. Gods.

"I think it may needlessly worry him to hear I'm back here, since I'm just eating and resting and such," Ky murmured carefully. "But I don't mind if you tell him, if you think he should know."

Laura dipped her head and looked to Gaius, who noted her silent inquiry but said nothing, choosing to keep his attention on the winter. He wasn't going to tell Tomhas about Ky; it would only upset his brother more and Ky was on her way out of her thicket anyway. If she relapsed he'd just set it to rights again, or try to.

Had she gotten away with it? Ky wasn't going to let herself hope just yet. But it did seem like that particular conversation was going to be future-Ky's problem instead of current-Ky's problem, now.

She ate more of the soup, encouraged by her progress so far. So close to a job well done. Just had to eat a little more to empty the bowl.

He supposed the entire household must be on edge right now, Tomhas most of all. He knew his younger brother was just a few catastrophic events away from dipping into the well of paranoia that he himself drew from. A man like Tomhas--high-energy, easily distracted, and observant of everything in his surroundings--could very quickly go mad if that happened.

Ky made it through the rest of her soup, and looked down with a surge of satisfaction that she'd managed to empty the entire bowl. And it hadn't even made her sick. That was nice. She supposed the sustenance was good for her.

(Wanna skip?)

(works for me! Do you have somewhere in mind?)

(We could always do an interaction between Ky and one of the kids. Do you know what she'll decide yet as far as staying or going?)

(she is strongly, strongly gonna try to make someone else make that decision for her haha she'll probably consent to going to Serpent Keep if she gets the impression that's what Tomhas and Anneke want her to do but I'm happy either way -- dunno what if anything you have planned!)

(Anneke really, really won't want to separate the family so she and Tomhas are gonna argue about it. Sara's gonna talk to Gaius later today and she'll be down for it if Tomhas and Anneke are, but those two are of course split on that front)

(I did think it would be cool if we got to converge the two plotlines for just a little while and see how she'd interact with Pratik now that she's out, as well as how she'd interact with Rickard, Ada, and the Ash household. That definitely doesn't have to happen if things don't work out that way, though. It's more of a fun optional path.)