ironAge

Lado declines to comment on his granddaughter's abilities, and since Iron herself does not speak, no one really knows what she's capable of. She is prone to disappearing for long stretches of time, coming back with wounds and bruises across her hips and shoulders, sometimes limping on a broken leg, thought there is no clue to where she's been.

When Autumn's nameless daughter was first brought before Lado, he seemed not to notice her at first. It took some urging before he would turn his head to her - though he had not yet begun binding his eyes, he used them very little these days. "Your granddaughter, Lado," Lola said gently. "Autumn's daughter."
"What have you brought me?" he asked hoarsely, ignoring her words. He sniffed the air, tilted his head. "What does she call herself?"
Autumn looked at the gangly, half-grown skydancer at her side. "She...she doesn't speak. I've never heard her say a word."
Lado scoffed, jerked his head away. "An anomaly. You've brought me an anomaly." He bared his teeth, lurched to his feet and paced side to side. "Iron to spit in the face of brass. Debris in the gears." Stopping suddenly, he whirled on his daughter and granddaughter, and looked into the child's eyes - electric blue to electric blue, sparks in the shadow of the great cliff.
"Marked," Lado said, finally, "but not in the way one should be marked. Guard her. She could break the Wheel."
Lola finally intervened, steering him away, looking back over her shoulder as they went. "He's having a bad day, Autumn. I'm sorry."
Autumn ignored her mother, looking down at her daughter. "Iron?" she said, uncertainly, and the skydancer looked up at her.
Autumn sighed - half relief, half exasperation. "Yes. Iron." She crouched down in the sand, bringing their faces level. "Everything will be okay, I promise. No one will force you to talk if you don't want to. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Just...be you, okay? What he says doesn't mean anything."
Iron looked after Lado where he was sheltered under Lola's wing, then back up at her mother before nodding, once, sharply.
She never did speak.

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