The nerves of my child make my shoulders steel. I cannot allow her to part from me, to hide from, not after we have been separated for so long. This maternal instinct is strongest with her and Lucia and while I sometimes felt guilt about my lack of it with my other children, I realize that love was the factor. I had loved Carnifex in the end, cursed him for his macho manners that had, in turn, killed him. Just as I love Exodus now. My eldest and my youngest were the only ones, in my mind, who still truly existed in the capacity of my love. So I would fight for her in a way I had fought for my life.

My child is pragmatic. She understands what binds us and while others, more sentimental, might argue and say they would have loved her regardless, I do not. It is only because she is my daughter that the bond exists and only because she was part of Carnifex. Nothing could change that and nothing ever would. But her next words see me gasp in a deep breath of air, pupils widening. I... suspected it. I should have known. His tastes were eclectic at best, horrid at worst, but I had loved him anyways. I had CHOSEN to love him while I was commanded by motherhood to love her. If I could accept it in him, then I surely could with her.

Still, it is off putting. Yet I do not berate her because I had killed too. Killed, stolen, begged, lied. We were all sinners. Her reasons were the same - survival. It turned into a taste and that was not uncommon. I let her finish because she needs to and I need to hear it all, the worst, the dirty little secret. Then the question comes and I step towards her, proud and regal.

"No. Sometimes survival means doing what is wrong. The strong survive, Myrria, even if they are not strong physically." A brittle smile. "How do you think I survived?" I pause, pondering. "Your... father. He had the same tastes as you." My ears pull backwards. "I did not like it. We met and it was only through my bargaining that he did not kill me too, you see, but eventually I grew to love him. He was my beast and he loved me too. I know it. I had hoped that with him gone you would never have had to turn to such things but it is in your blood, I suppose."

What now? "Is it evil if a hawk kills a stray pup? No, it is survival. I.... do not like this but I understand it, daughter. Can you.. could you... stop it if we found a solution? A medicine that could rid you of the craving?" I would not forsake her. I would tear down this earth to find a cure, and if not, then I would protect her from any fallout. Always.