For a moment, she hesitates. Wants to go to Lakshmi, wants to— to apologise, and the desire baffles her. When she did nothing wrong, when it is she who bleeds, and yet she wishes to heal Lakshmi's wounds, now? She swallows heavily, and begins walking again.

Another day she might go to the forge, but now she is tired from travelling, and this argument feels as though it has sapped the strength from her. She just runs to their room, their room, a space that is meant to be shared, and falls back into a chair by the fireplace.

Giving Lakshmi this power over her was stupid, foolish, and her head drops into her hands.