Left to Northern, he didn't want to do any of this. The only person that could make him commit to what he'd rather not do without question was Eisha herself.
And Northern was here now, facing Raven and trying to tell her that Shin was her adopted father, not this man. But he wasn't in the place to say it. Not yet.
So he turned to the Patriarch instead and walked towards him.
He stood in front of the man. For the first time, the grin on the Patriarch's face had died, and he was looking up at Northern with an expression carved from stone. Still, hard, and emptied of all that performative amusement.
Northern looked down at him and scoffed.
"I presume you're suddenly growing tired of seeing, uhn."
The Patriarch slowly lowered his eyes and said nothing.
Raven watched this happen, and something shifted behind her gaze. It wasn't that Northern was strong enough to tame the man. She'd known that much already.
