Själ

One day, Själ would wonder if she had been this annoyingly inquisitive as a filly - but for now, she merely found it annoying.  Particularly as the topic turned to her life.  She had managed to recover (somewhat) from the pain of losing her mother and the hurt that had come with her abandonment - but hearing the roller coaster that was her life summed up so simply and with so little concern was disconcerting, to say the least.  "Yes," she said, her voice a few degrees colder than it had been before.  "My mother had me outside of Helovia, and then left me to come back.  I don't know why.  I thought that she would return in a few days, maybe a week.  When she never came back, I came looking for her, and learned that she had been killed."  Is that what you wanted to hear, you little spirit brat?

The filly swallowed her resentment and took a breath.  Logically, it wasn't Tae's fault - she was merely asking about Själ's life, presumably so that she understood the older girl's story.  That didn't make it any easier, and it didn't make the girl look upon Tae any more kindly at the moment.  Ansgar, feeling her bonded's displeasure, began to puff out her feathers, grumbling her distaste for the entire topic.  Who needed a mother, anyway, when they could have a bonded?  What use had a mother ever been to her darling Själ?  (Let's forget, for a moment, that without Psyche, Själ would have never existed.)  All her mother had brought Själ was pain and anger.  No, she was much better off without that.

Själ's interest returned to the younger girl when Tae began to tell her about how her father had been possessed and had carried out a string of murders.  That Själ's mother had been one of his victims.  She stared at the filly, emotions warring for her attention beneath the surface.  An instant, blinding hatred encompassed her, but she shoved it aside.  Acting on impulse had never been a good thing, in her experience, and she certainly wasn't going to start now.  Suspicion appeared next - what if this Tae was here to finish the job that her father had started, and wipe out Psyche's lineage?  But no, the girl was far too small and young to be given such a task.

Gods, Själ had never even known how Mother had died. She hadn't had the slightest idea that Psyche had been murdered. She was suddenly, for the first time in her life, grateful to have been left behind, and the realization filled her with guilt. Why had she been deserted, been spared, when her mother had clearly come here for a reason that she never got to carry out? Why had Psyche come back in the first place?

The feelings ebbed and flowed; finally, Själ sighed.

"You weren't even born yet, were you?" Själ pointed out gruffly.  "Why would you be my enemy?  If anyone was going to be, I guess it would be your father, but - why do you keep fading?" she demanded suddenly, fed up and overwhelmed with the little girl-spirit.

"Speech."