@fairelance answered your ask “[@bitterestest-ninja, to you-know-who] Saizo barged into the...”
Perhaps the worst of such cruelty was that Saizo was perhaps correct. Maybe they were not the true mother, father, son that they knew, but facets of the three of them scattered across time and converging in an unfamiliar space.
Askr was a cruel, ugly place from that perspective.
Azura did, however, relent, and carefully laid Asugi back down on his infirmary bed. She hadn’t seen high nor hair of his father, otherwise she would have talked with him to prevent this misunderstanding. She knew Saizo meant well, even like this, but also knew letting him carry on in ceaseless rage wasn’t something she would let him carry on with, either.
“If you think I mock you,” she began, “Then you have my apologies for expressing relief that my son is alive and has hope to recover.” Her tone was firm and even, refusing to yield even an inch. “He may not be the exact Asugi I carried and bore, you may not be the exact man I married, but know that all I care for is his well being.”
She was only a woman, she could be scared, but her husband- a fit of fire and fury or no -was not something she would ever be afraid of. Not when her child needed her more.
She stepped aside to let him tend to Asugi, but did not lose more ground than that. “I know it’s much to ask for your trust, Saizo, but I will. Your anger is the way you channel your concern, I’ve accepted that, but targeting it at me when it should very well be placed at the feet of that monster is misguided and you know it.”
“DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?!” Saizo snapped in a voice that was more snarl than voice. “He is NOT your son. To you, he is the same as any other wretch that wanders these halls. If you’d call him your son, why not that lad Gaius for the sake of it, hmmm? After all, close enough, RIGHT?!”
He glared at her. “I saw my wife dissolve before my very eyes. I will carry that pain with me to my grave. You are nothing but a cheap imitation of the one who stole my heart, as I am naught but a stranger to you and this boy is someone you’ve never met. He and Shigure -- MY Shigure -- are all that I have in this world, and I will NOT sully the memory of their mother by allowing some doppelganger to waltz in as if nothing ever happened!”
He waved her off. “Find someone else to shower with your concern, witch. My boy needs me, and you’re nothing but a distraction.” If she really thought he couldn’t resent both her and the beast that nearly took his son from him, she had another thing coming. He had a bottomless well of hatred just waiting to boil over at the moment!
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