Of Crows and Songbirds (Part 2)

Ky hesitated from where she was serving herself a scoop of roasted vegetables. Why must they? He was right, obviously. But she didn’t see how it was implied. Unless he just noticed all of Tadaaki’s silent pleas for her to take the lead. She dipped her head. “Yes, sir. We are.”

"Have you known each other very long, then? You seem like good friends."

Tadaaki smiled ever so slightly at that as he reached for a roll. He liked that title. Friend Of Ky’s.

“Yes sir,” Ky confirmed, nodding once. “About four years now… been through a lot together.”

"I bet. Hardships form real tight bonds between people, I've found. You're very lucky to have each other."

“Yes, sir,” Ky agreed, ducking her head. “Things started going better for me once I started taking his advice; I would have been significantly worse off on my own.”

Unless Aleth had never taken her, which is what would have been luckiest. Tadaaki couldn’t say that of course. But Ky had no luck whatsoever in any of this. And his advice only helped her so much. She still suffered a significant amount and there was nothing he could do to stop that or help her.

"Always good to have someone on your side," he said quietly.
"What do you like to do for fun, Ky and Tadaaki?" Lady Constance asked, clearing her throat.

“I quite like reading, ma’am!” Ky said brightly, shaking off the somberness of the last topic in an instant. “I’ve been doing a lot of that. And I’m teaching Tadaaki to read, which we’ve both been enjoying I think.”

Tadaaki nodded in agreement.

"That's wonderful!" She nodded encouragingly. "What do you like to read?"

“I’ve been reading a lot of Northern folklore!” Ky said with a smile. “Lord Ash gave me wonderful recommendations. I just finished up reading about Stone Mother earlier this evening.”

"Ooo." Lady Constance's eyes widened. "My mother used to read me that story before bed. I refused to read it to our son Ewan--it kept me up all night when I was a little girl, and even into my teens."

“It is spooky… guess we’ll see in a few hours whether it keeps me up,” Ky joked, smiling. She didn’t imagine it would, though. Of all the things in her life to fret about, a fictional creature was low on the list. She doubted she’d sleep. But it’d be Aleth haunting her, not Stone Mother.

"What inspired you to read Northern myths as opposed to others? I always thought they were kind of dreary."

“Sheer curiosity, ma’am. I’m still figuring out what I like to read now that I’ve got the freedom to pick, and decided to start there. Since we’re here for now and all that.”

"It's as good a place to start as any," Gaius said firmly. "The Northern myths certainly have their charm."

Had she said something wrong?

“Yes sir.” She dipped her head and looked back at Lady Constance. “I am enjoying them quite a lot, ma’am.”