"What is it that your heart desires?"
Ashlynn's question seeped into Adala's heart like snowflakes melting on her skin. It seemed like such a delicate thing at first, but once the question melted into her heart, the path the icy water took wasn't anything she could predict.
Or rather, like water settling at the bottom of a valley, it collected in the place it inevitably belonged, at the base of everything, no matter what she did to stop its flow.
"You'll laugh," Adala said, folding her hands neatly in her lap as she watched the drifting snowflakes falling in the garden. "People like us… we're not meant to find love. Father made sure I understood that before I ever went to the Iron Kingdom."
