[ the unmistakable, stomach-leadening feeling of a misstep unidentified, words loosed with the wrong inflection in the wrong order, ] Have I offended?

[ her eyes search his, heavy as they seem now, when she'd meant to give a little bit of kindness in gratitude for what he's shown her. she'd been so afraid, the first time, and every time since, and now there's solutions, plans. her hand her own again and her insides in all their proper places.

mages and draughts and coming clean to leadership, all to come, but first: this. ]