PERSEPHONE

Persephone waited, her expression patient even if her stomach squirmed with a prick of anxiety at the thought of what Arkana could be working up the courage to tell her. If she had come to her rather than her mother first, Persephone could only assume it was something that Evren wouldn’t approve of, or would be angry about. She felt at once both flattered and apprehensive to have been chosen for this unburdening.

Finally, Arkana’s revealing question came. Her words danced around real question, but her meaning couldn’t have been plainer given the tension in the air and the expression on the young girl’s face. Persephone let out a small sigh – not judgemental or frustrated, but simply a pause as she considered her words carefully, and a release of the unease inside herself.

“Well…” she began slowly, her voice calm but cautious as she answered. “It was hard to tell at first. The odd flutter in my stomach, starting to grow a little wider in the middle – I started to feel hungrier too – but as the weeks passed I felt it more and more until I was certain.”

She paused a moment, looking to meet Arkana’s gaze. Although she had deigned to answer the girl’s roundabout question, she was not blind to subtext, of course. There were many, many questions swimming around Persephone’s mind, but for now, she settled on just one. She made an effort to keep her tone calm and objective as she spoke.

“Do you think you might be pregnant, Arkana?”

all of your demons will wither away

mixed, bay varnish roan, 14.3hh