I lingered in the courtyard a little longer than I should have. The stone bench was cold under my thighs, and my sleeve had this loose thread I kept twisting like it owed me money. Across from me, my mother sipped her tea like she hadn't just said the words Darkwood and a week in the same sentence.
I mean.
I blinked at her.
"…Mother?"
She didn't look at me right away. Just this perfect little brow-arch, like I'd interrupted her evening opera.
"What is the journey like?" I asked. My voice came out all soft and pathetic, like a wilted flower who forgot how to photosynthesize. Ugh. "Through the Darkwood, I mean. What should I expect?"
She paused. Set her cup down like she was afraid it might break if she moved too fast. The clink was dramatic. Loud. Theatric. Symbolic, probably.
"I wouldn't know," she said. So breezy. So casual.
I frowned. "You never went?"
And then this smile. This little tragic goddess smile that just hovered on her lips like the ghost of a secret. I hated it.
"No. I was born with a Brand."
Oh. Right. That.
Of course she was. Of course she was one of the precious few plucked straight from the divine uterus with a god-approved forehead stamp. Born special. Born spiritual. Born sparkly. Her Brand, I remembered, looked like starlight smeared behind clouds. I saw it once by accident and immediately forgot how to breathe.
"Then…" I hesitated. I wasn't sure if I should keep talking or dissolve into mist. "Is there someone who might tell me what it's really like?"
She didn't even blink.
"Ask your father. He earned his Brand the traditional way."
Naturally.
I nodded, because I didn't know what else to do. "Thank you, Mother."
She gave this distant nod, already floating back to her garden thoughts. Probably mentally pruning roses or hexing the neighbors or whatever noble women do when they're not being inscrutable.
I stood. Skirt clinging annoyingly to the back of my knees. Left the courtyard with that itchy feeling under my skin. The one that meant something important had just happened and I wasn't sure if I wanted to scream or cry or take a nap and never wake up.