01: The Song Whispers
Alexa leaned into the wind, hearing it whistle past her ears, chilling the tips, eyes closed. She'd stood this way for most of the journey. If not here, then below decks in her cabin, thinking. Listening. Listening. La Chanson hadn't said anything, but she certainly had. Too much, in fact. She was unsure why she'd told Lucas what she had, but what was done was done. It had been a surprise to hear that he'd hoped (even the smallest amount) that Tallman had escaped. It had been his decisiveness that confirmed she would be handed over. To hear that his upbringing and training had dictated his belief (at the time) that she must hang disquieted Alexa. It was that sensation which reminded her to watch her tongue around Edgewaters, and beware what trust she put in them.
For days she'd tried to talk to Chevalier about what had happened in Breezy Point Bay, but every time she opened her mouth to speak, something stopped her. Speaking with Lucas...it wasn't that she didn't care what he made of her thoughts, but that...the emotions were not so charged between them. Lucas was a straightforward individual, when it came down to it. Chevalier? Not so much. Especially not when it involved her and her family. She sighed, pushing a whipping lock of hair away from her face. When she spoke with him, he would know exactly what she intended. He always did. The curse of observing three generations of a single matriarchal line...she would wager he could guess what she was about to say before she said it, sometimes.
The next stop, the next step of the journey. Alexa could have kicked herself the first time someone had referred to her as "m'lady" and she hadn't corrected them. She wasn't made for this, wasn't deceptive like Spider. She never had been. Of course she could beg papa to sneak her sweets, or sneak into the kitchens and steal a fingerful or two of icing from the cake prepared for a banquet the next night (it had been one time, and Marshall had been so severely punished she had resolved never to do it again). But she wasn't skilled in deception. What good did it do to lie? She was...too honest.
And really, that's what it came down to. She knew that if asked questions directly, she would more than likely answer them truthfully - particularly if Vee were the interrogator - and so the best way to avoid the issue was simply to avoid speaking to anyone. Especially Vee.
But Lucas had broken that attempt. And now she wanted to speak with Vee, but didn't know how. Still. It had been days and they hadn't talked about the aftermath. They hadn't discussed why some people deserved to die and others didn't, and how to do the right thing without causing harm. The longer Alexa considered the last few weeks, the less she ever wanted to hurt people again...but La Chanson was becoming like a drug - a powerful drug, one that kept making suggestions of ways to use it to protect others. And she knew, as she leaned into that wind, the cool air battering her face, that not everything it suggested would protect the way she wanted to.
In short, as she glanced around to see Vee unobtrusively watching her, she would have to speak with the one who really mattered soon, because the young half-elf had a lot of power at her fingertips and didn't know what to do with it.
