Commiserating

NOTE: set after 01/07/2020
 
Below deck, the crew and her friends could be heard drinking and carrying on to lose themselves in the evening. Adelaide's mouth was dry at the thought. She returned to staring out at the darkness around them, the sounds of the island filling her mind: the chill on the wind, birdcalls she couldn't recognize. The world stretched out before her in the night. A world so few had seen from the outside. The first Birchfield on the shores of Lamina Island.
 
Telemechus landed on the railing of the ship, the gossamer wings of some insect trapped in his beak. He crunched down, and then sidled up to Adelaide's arm. Without thinking, Addy scritched his head. She'd never noticed how warm he was.
 
Adelaide reached up and grasped her delicate earring, its butterfly wing shimmering in the moonlight. Her words were barely a whisper, but she didn't suspect anyone would notice besides its target. She pictured Bonnie in her mind, somewhere on board. Stewing, or soaking in booze, or somewhere between. With a quiet exhale, Adelaide sent the spectral messenger on the air.
 
"We don't need them, dearheart. Either of them."