Her suggestion of fertility is an interesting one, and he's reminded again that not only will this child be the son or daughter of two fine warriors, it will be the grandchild of a God. The great Earth God, no less. It's impossible not to notice the gigantic deity's genetic influence upon Isopia, with her size and her control over the earth, and he wonders whether those traits will pass down to their offspring as well. It gives him a large swell of pride to realise that he'll be the father to children from two different demi-gods, although he actually employs some semblance of tact for once and decides it best not to blurt this out.

He doesn't realise how heavily his heart is hammering against his chest in anticipation of her response to his question. It's suddenly become so, so important for him to have her close to him in light of this news, because he can't help but associate distance with the start of all their troubles last time. After all, didn't her no-holds-barred pulverising of him, and the ensuing decimation of their relationship, coincide with him joining the Throat and therefore him having less time to see her? Inside Volterra's often illogical mind, there's an intrinsic link between physical distance - Edge or Falls to Throat - with emotional distance from her. When he was an outcast who could go wherever the urge took him, they had no such troubles. Could their last child have been saved if they'd been herdmates and Volterra had been able to explain himself before the Mountain did what she did? If they'd been residing close enough to each other, could they have reconciled their differences earlier rather than letting them fester and driving her to erase all memory of him?

Because of these past events, Volterra wants her as close as possible so he can be the man that she deserves, the man who will dote on her, protect her, love her. Not only that, but he's made a promise to himself to be involved in all of his offspring's lives and he's not the sort of man to break an oath - trekking halfway across Helovia to visit the child will inevitably provide a barrier to their relationship, not to mention the added inconvenience of having to ask the Edge leaders' permission to see his own flesh and blood. He wants to see Isopia more too, of course, and there's something that feels so right about having her in his herd with him. She is the most important woman in his life and yet she lives half a continent away! Ignorant as he can sometimes be, it doesn't occur to him that it may make her uncomfortable to live alongside his other lovers and foals - selfishly, he sees such a large harem-esque family as only a good thing. In his naiive mind he pictures Isopia happily conversing with his other women whilst their foals frolic together in the Throat's sand, as close as any siblings can hope to be.

Her answer, then, is not the one he'd hoped for. Leave the Throat? Had that question been asked a year ago, when he was a stranger in a strange land surrounded by herdmates who disliked and shunned him, he'd have answered yes without a second thought. Now? Now he has responsibilities. Now he has friends, family, loyalties in the desert south. The crown that rests upon his head is not just there to bolster his ego and increase his attractiveness to the opposite gender. It's a solemn vow that he made with the Sun God and the herd itself - to protect it, to grow it, to give every last drop of his blood for those pale sands and its residents. He can't turn his back on that. "Ach, kis hollo, I cannot. The Sun God chose me to rule the Throat, and it's finally returning to some semblance of stability after so many leadership changes since Gaucho's reign. I cannot abandon it, especially not with the threat of Kaos hanging over us like the reaper's blade." He knows that she can say the same thing right back to him, albeit her rank isn't a leadership one, but he can only fix her with his most beseeching gaze and hope that she'll agree to move.

As much as it pains him, he knows he needs to give her an out - he'd hate for her to feel forced into something she doesn't want. "I understand if you would prefer to stay in the Edge, as no doubt your ties there are as strong as mine to the Throat. I would not want you to do something you didn't want to do...but I would dearly love to have you and our child at my side."