Unlike her daughter, Corvette found no enjoyment in her return to the Commons. In truth, she would have much rather continued to linger in the Bay in the hopes that Fell would return until moss and mud overtook her. But to do so would mean that she would have to stomach Corvair coming here alone, and in that, that she might never see her baby girl again.
That thought was untenable.
After travelling for so long without ever setting down her own roots, Vette had not expected to find the sort of happiness that had come from living in the Bay. Being with Fell had brought her a sense of calm she had never before desired, and now that his absence had left her without it for so long, her heart ached for even a fraction of that security.
It wasn't that she didn't trust Fell's other sons. Emhyr seemed capable enough, but she missed the quiet comfort of meeting with her lover by chance in the woods, of pressing chaste kisses against their skin before they both went their separate ways. She missed belonging to someone.
There was no guarantee she would find that again, she knew. Odds were that she would end up stuffed in some territory she hated with someone she couldn't stand, but she had to be here, if only to witness Corvair's first steps into the adult world. And so, as the two grey mares parted, the elder hung back near the border of the Commons and let her gaze rest on her daughter's eager pose, hoping against all hope that she would find someone who would treat her well.