"Are you getting enough to eat? Are you even sleeping? Even if you've been cooped up in the dead of winter, your complexion is worrying, dear…"
For a moment, Ashlynn didn't know how to respond to her mother's concern. A sense of warmth filled her heart when her mother reached out with a simple touch on her brow, the way her mother had checked on her when she suffered a fever or the chills as a child. Some things never changed. But the reason she looked so pale…
"She always works too hard," Nyrielle said, mirroring Maela's concerned tone as she wrapped an arm around Ashlynn, pulling her close enough to bestow a brief kiss on her cheek. "I wonder, is that something she learned from her father, or do I have you to blame for that, Mother-in-law?" Nyrielle asked in a light, languid tone.
