The memory of that incident remained with her for the rest of her years.

The way Marosa doubled over in pain, the wings shooting out like leaves in a hurricane, the blood that welled out from the new wounds...

And the silent resentment that came from her father, leaving her unwilling to speak. What was the point? If no one was willing to listen... why should she even have a voice?

Fey were meant to play these kinds of games -- and Sayael realized that she'd been too open with her feelings. Too trusting. Too... heartfelt.

Wearing your heart on your sleeve was not something that faeries did. It was seen as an abhorrent thing, something that would get you ostracized from most things if you were an open book.

Either that, or very easily used -- and slowly but surely, Sayael realized just what a problem that would become if left unchecked.

Her mother was over the moon -- but of course her mother would be. Anything that made her brother have to take a step back in life just made her giddy as hell, and it was something that Saya just didn't understand.

And so, Sayael became stoic. She became less outgoing, and more introverted, even though she loved to explore the woods... she stuck her nose in books and tried her best to ignore everything going on around her -- but it was hard to.

No, it was impossible to.

Her mother always had her nose stuck in everything, after all.

Anything that could be twisted to her mother's will, was. Anything that could be gained, was gained.

And her mother enjoyed every moment of it... while Saya herself, remained stoic, and silent.

And ever watchful through the entirety of it.

And then Sayael realized... she could thwart some of her mother's plans, foil the plots in progress...

Marosa, after all, was the only one who ever really gave her the time of day.

And so, with a stoic guise... she acted. It was little things at first, a moved chair here, a misplaced bauble there... before she began to ask servants about particular changes in the menu.

They were supposed to have an extravagant dinner with various fried things as well as rich gravies -- a bunch of food that Marosa or his father most likely could not manage to keep down, while her and her mother could.

She asked the servants to change half of the menu to sweet things -- it seemed that the Gancanagh, with enough variety in the menu, would be fine if they just had a healthy balance of both.

When the food was brought out, Sayael suppressed a smile as her mother looked aghast, mouth flapping open like a fish.

And her father... Da'luagh... remarked on how good everything looked, praising the woman for such a vast array of different foods.

She couldn't say anything, and Sayael took a bite to hide her smile, her whole body giddy with delight that she'd thwarted her mother's devious plan to make Da'luagh and Marosa suffer in silence.

It only happened a few more times until her mother found out what was going on, and put a swift and abrupt stop to it.

The pain for her punishment was unbearable.

She was left in her room for days, cradling the branches that had been broken from her back, silent tears pooling down her face as she shook.

The branches would grow back, but the damage was done -- they were stunted, and would only grow with the most proper care. She just had to be careful, and not let anyone touch them.

The branches were black and falling apart into ash in her hands, and she let go of them, just mere bloody stubs remaining there now.

It would be a few months until new growth would return... but she would keep a stoic guise, not at all regretful that she'd done what she had.

After all... games like this were meant to be dark and played at high stakes.

Especially when family was involved.