The blue petals mocked her from the table.
Anger, sharp and hot, coiled in Alyssane's gut. She hardly knew the woman who sat in front of her, and yet the stranger had opened a barely healed wound.
Nora's smile remained, a shadowy amusement danced in her hazel eyes. The silence stretched, heavy and uncomfortable, until Alyssane finally broke it.
"There's nothing funny about that," she said, her voice low and stern, "What are you playing at?"
A flicker of sadness, and confusion, genuine this time, replaced the amusement in Nora's eyes. "Do you no longer see me as a friend?" she asked, her voice a gentle murmur.
Friend? The memory of their first encounter, the raw desperation of that moment, returned to Alyssane and she could only frown. All she was thinking back then was making Nora silent once and for all. She had not been sure what she would do, but all she saw was darkness.
