Isolde was slowly improving she had spent the rest of the evening catching up with her estranged father, "What was her name?" Rowan paused, his fingers stilling on the book's pages. He didn't look up. "Whose name?" He knew exactly who she meant, but the question seemed to need to be asked.
Isolde took a deep breath, steadying herself. "The woman you loved. The one who gave birth to me." The silence that followed was heavy, thick with unspoken words. Rowan finally looked up, his eyes dark with something that might have been pain or anger or both.
"Her name was Aelwyn." He spoke the name softly, like a prayer or a curse. "She was beautiful. Strong. Smart enough to see through the lies people told her." He closed the book with a soft thump.
"She was human?" Isolde asked, waiting eagerly for his response Rowan nodded slowly. "
