_Author's POV_
Virella watched the full clip twice.
She didn't plan to watch it the second time. Her finger just didn't move to turn it off when it ended and the channel looped it back to the beginning and she sat there on the couch and watched Kaelen walk into the Ashthorne banquet hall with that expression on his face, the one she recognized, the one she had been trying to explain away for years, and she let herself see it clearly this time without the protective layer of not knowing.
He sat down on the opposite end of the couch when he came in and she didn't move away from him or even move toward him.
She said what she needed to say. He received it with the stillness of someone who wasn't going to defend himself, which was the first sign all evening that he had arrived at
