"Yes," Faelene suddenly said, as if answering some question; that Sielu had asked something even he could understand, seeing the way she gazed at Faelene, and the way her expression had changed at hearing that this white beast peering at her was her father. But what she had asked, he had no idea. Mauja wondered if she disliked it — he hadn't spent enough time around her to know what that frown meant, but it wasn't full of sunshine and daises. Maybe she would've wanted him to be some kind of uncle instead, Faelene's trusted brother, here to tell stories and play with her in the fading tundra grasses, weave in and out of the scrubby trees? Briefly he wondered if she knew who he was, or if Faelene had kept her from the Basin politics — not that his rank mattered anyway, but if she had a concept of what it meant..? Would it matter, to her?

And then, the most peculiar thing happened.

It certainly wasn't what he had expected. He had been waiting for a small, young voice to say something back, words to spill out from her dark lips, but instead, it felt like someone poured cold water on his brain. It slid along the inside of his cranium, like a wet snake under his skin; blue eyes widened, but otherwise he remained motionless, staring at nothing and just examining the sensation. It felt wrong, alien, uncomfortable and outright creepy, that tender silver mist raking along the ice walls of his mind.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped, and Mauja released a breath he hadn't been aware of holding. He blinked in the sunlight as warmth returned to the world. Things felt more normal, but he still remembered the echo of that wet, slithering feeling of his unyielding mind being submerged in something. "I think he has a shield over his mind." Those words pulled him back to the past, gaze snapping to his daughter; she stood poised as if pushing against something, Faelene soothing her with voice and body. What the hell just happened? At a loss for words, and feeling like he did not understand the crucial thing, he simply stared helplessly at the pair, wondering if he wasn't meant to be a part of their world after all; the notion clawed at his heart, but before his frantic mind could leap to all the wrong conclusions, Faelene's voice broke through the silence again. "She wants to talk to you, but she can't. Her voice is not heard by ears."

For a moment, he couldn't understand what she was saying, but Irma helpfully rolled into his soul. Like I do, she seemed to say; their communication was always in concepts and images, feelings and thoughts shared without words yet he knew what she meant as clearly as if she'd spoken it in his ear. Your mind is like someone frozen. She rolled over gently in the air; he could feel the tug of wind against her feathers, the feeling of freedom she associated with tumbling around in the sky. I sometimes wonder why you haven't got a cramp in it yet, always pulling yourself closer and closer, hugging your thoughts tight. Just let go.. relax, for a moment...

She had known. She had known all along.
And he hadn't.

It seemed that months of paranoia had had a tangible effect, and Mauja blinked in the sunlight once more, trying to feel his own thoughts — his own mind — out. How would he detect it? How would he know it?

Do I block out you at times, too?
No. I speak to your soul, your heart, not your thoughts.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, wondering how long he'd been semi-spaced out. A few seconds? Longer? "I didn't know. I.. don't even know how to stop." He frowned slightly, before letting his distant gaze grow more focused. Still looking somewhat concentrated he peered at Sielu. "Would you mind helping me out? Just keep trying until I manage to let you in..." And slowly, he started to try and picture it like ice, the way it froze over rivers and brooks. He tried to be aware of the world around him, more than usual, to relax the tight knot of his thoughts, as Irma had put it — hoping to feel the touch of his daughter's mind again, but this time, to hear her words and not only feel her slide across the blank screen separating him from the world.

[ I plan on having him manage to lower something enough to let her in, so if you want to Angel, you're welcome to say you find some way through in your next post. :3 Up to you! ]