the boy cannot resist that last jab even if he fully expects to receive another cane hit. But he still grins before continuing in this new somber tone.
"You think-" Rana tried to fit the boy's conception of realiy within her own... and failed. Utterly failed. "Brains of salt-water taffy," she muttered, disbelieving, before turning away in disgust... Only to turn right back, cane pointed for emphasis: "The Lady of Thorns isn't any part of your circle-girl, boy. Is that clear? And she certainly isn't anything so simple as my 'goddess'."
You'd think the word left a bad taste on her lips.
To her credit, she resisted the urge to brag... for a good five heartbeats. "And *I*'ve met Her three times before I even knew Her. I have been to Her court. I danced at the Ball of Season's Change. I rode in the great hunt -- by Her side!" Rana's pale eyes had lost focus, gazing at sights beyond the world of mortals.
"She looks out of the eyed of foxes and the knot holes of briars. She is the old lady you won't help, the child of no mother, the cursing laughter on midnight wings. She found me when I lay crying, abandoned, and lifted me up. She is Queen. She is love. She is my patron!"
Rana laughted, arms spread. Disbelief, wonder and wild pride.
The laugh of the young girl she once must have been
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