“That’s your name, though. Tell me about how that doesn’t feel like cutting you out of the clade.” Sarah smiled gently, adding, “Not that I don’t believe you, I just want to understand where you’re coming from on this.”
“I guess it is that she has not told anyone but her stanza not to talk to me. To us, I mean. Her and In Dreams’s stanzas talk to each other. They still talk to the second, third, and fourth. They still talk to What Lives and so on in the ninth. We talk to all of those people, too.” She smiled sidelong at Sarah. “So I guess I see where you are going. I do still see her as an aunt because she has not actually said that we are not family — or like a family — she has just cut off contact. She has implied that we are still family, but that I did something wrong.”
Sarah laughed. “I really was just trying to figure things out, not lead you along, but that’s an important connection to make, there. Family members cutting off others in the family is common enough to be a whole area of study. How does it feel to treat the rest of the clade as an extended family, though?”
+(( why Sarah goes little mode with Motes: that infinitely wiser kid who is like a year and a half older than you ))