Gela nods, thinking about what she wants to say, looking at the photograph framed on the wall: a mantis, long and elegant.
"I think that I've mentioned my family had me first? Me, and three boys quick after that, so even though I'm the oldest, I'm also my mother's little girl." Even if she's gone. Forgive her tense, if it slips, because she doesn't talk about this often, if at all. "She was a merchant, and so she taught me book keepin' and inventory, and how to sew, and what birds best like the Cumber river. Birds were her favourite animal.
She had my hair. Or, I suppose I have hers. And- Maker, she would say the worst things about me because she knew me best of anyone. She could hurt me with a word." Sometimes Gela thinks that's probably why she died in the end: to twist the knife. The thought doesn't feel uncharitable. Her mother was a practical woman, her kindness buried deep.
Having said all this, she sighs. Perhaps notably, she shed a few tears hearing about Ellie's pain, and as she talks about her own, her eyes are dry. "I miss her," is the soft conclusion. "I wonder what she'd make of all this, and of me. She would not be proud that I've run off from home without properly inheritin' the family business, let me tell you."
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"I think that I've mentioned my family had me first? Me, and three boys quick after that, so even though I'm the oldest, I'm also my mother's little girl." Even if she's gone. Forgive her tense, if it slips, because she doesn't talk about this often, if at all. "She was a merchant, and so she taught me book keepin' and inventory, and how to sew, and what birds best like the Cumber river. Birds were her favourite animal.
She had my hair. Or, I suppose I have hers. And- Maker, she would say the worst things about me because she knew me best of anyone. She could hurt me with a word." Sometimes Gela thinks that's probably why she died in the end: to twist the knife. The thought doesn't feel uncharitable. Her mother was a practical woman, her kindness buried deep.
Having said all this, she sighs. Perhaps notably, she shed a few tears hearing about Ellie's pain, and as she talks about her own, her eyes are dry. "I miss her," is the soft conclusion. "I wonder what she'd make of all this, and of me. She would not be proud that I've run off from home without properly inheritin' the family business, let me tell you."