When Kottan said those words, Ayo couldn't believe it. Her father loved them... right?
She pondered it momentarily, then realized that he was being fake-sweet to Kottan. He looked at her like she was the biggest disappointment he'd ever recieved in life, and Ayo guessed that to him, she was.
When their mother had been pregnant with Kottan, their father had paraded around, sure that Kottan would be a boy. At the moment of Kottan's birth, shortly after naming her, their father was told Kottan was a girl.
Tannar Lyndexer went into a rage, nearly killing Kottan at that very moment. He'd tried to kill her all her life, but he could never bring himself to kill the sweet violet-eyed white-haired child, not until she looked too much like her mother. Then his desire to kill her only grew, making him hungrier for Kottan's blood.
He'd tie her with wire and cut her arms, just to hear her cry. He'd slap her, and he'd insult her, calling her things that cut deeper that any knife that ever pierced Kottan's flesh.
Ayo would hear Kottan's cries of pain and see her blood on things; but she had made her choice. She would do this without Kottan's knowledge, and rid the world of another crazed, misogynistic man.
----
"Father?" Ayo asked, innocently bringing her father his noon tea, a job that Kottan usually did. Tannar turned to face Ayo, and a genuine smile came onto his face.
"Yes, Ayo?" he said, arms open as he moved to embrace her.
"Why must you be such a !@#$%^&, Father?" Ayo questioned sadly, slipping a knife from her sleeve into her hand and plunging it into his chest. Tannar's mouth formed words with no sound, and Ayo left.
-----
As Kottan escaped the confines of her mind, she knew she had to find someone that could comfort her, even ten long years after his death.