If you told me it was not, I would ask you to stop lying to me.

[Love has never seemed simple to her. It was presented as such, in the ballads, of course, the only potential struggles coming less from feelings and more from forces that might try to keep destined or desperate lovers apart...

But that could not be true. Not if she was loving. If Akua was, too, apparently. In a different way.]

Is. That is love... and not just desire, or obsession?

[After a long moment, realizing what it might sound like-]

I do not say it to cast doubt on what you felt. I am just-

I am trying to... understand.