Chapter 34; The Warm Embrace of The Sun

Jake sat at the breakfast table with his mother- no; Jake sat before a one child-fewer mother. And that mother sat before a motherless child. Only he was the child, and she was the mother. And neither of them knew it.

They stared at each other as they ate, stealing glances when the other looked away to cut their fruits and stab it with their fork. Jake dropped his knife on the table, and he saw Aster flinch at the sound, he wondered if she had always been sensitive to sounds.

Then the large oak doors of the dining hall banged open, and Dimitri barged in with a map in hand and an inkwell in the other. He greeted them good morning, and kissed Aster atop the head. Jake received the answer to his earlier question as he watched the scene unfold before him; yes, he surmised, yes she had been far too sensitive to her surroundings for a very long time.