[ Sorry for the wait! ]

"Sorry," the colt was saying, and the strange man was glaring, and Mauja wondered for a moment what he'd walked into (or what had walked into him, rather). In the heartbeat of silence before the colt's voice went on he felt quite confused, not at all sure what he'd done wrong to put such a damper on the boy's joy—had he said something? Then the truth came out, and, in a way, it felt like the most backward racist statement he'd ever heard. It came from consideration but came out like condemnation, and Mauja's 'brows shot upwards in a mild gesture of surprise. Rude? How could it be rude if Mauja had been the one to say it? And besides—what did it matter if he had wings or not? In all his time, he'd never met a horse discontent with his or her physical lot in life, had never met someone who sighed over not having a horn or wings, or having it, or anything like that. Granted, the majority of his friends had been unicorn supremacists, and if Deimos had walked up to him on some dark, lonely night to confess some deep sorrow over not having wings—well, he would've been quite concerned if that had happened.

"It's not rude," he managed to get out, still mulling over it. Did Kari's mother think less of those who had no wings, or did she pity them? Did Mauja pity those who had no horn? It was, he had to admit, an excellent weapon, and if you pitted a unicorn against an equine, who was the most suited to stabbing the other to death? The unicorn, of course; but it was no crown to make each and every one a King or Queen. It grew out of a skull, not a noble heart, and in a lifetime spent being superior because of it, had he ever wished those who lacked one to have one? If everyone wore a horn, what would there be to build power upon? They were old methods of thinking, patterns he'd fallen out of and revisited only out of curiosity. Besides, he had never believed in slavery—had always thought that the only way to dominate was to leave nothing else around.

".. What's that he's got in his mouth?" Good thing the colt wasn't able to tell what had been going on in Mauja's head. No one ought to know such things; his attention snapped to the short, silent stranger, who decided that such a question, repeated all around by the crystal walls, demanded an answer. And so, he wasn't silent anymore, but decided to make sure the verbal conversation included him, too. What Mauja had taken for some kind of abnormal swelling, had actually just been a horse's variant of hamster cheeks; the object he laid down on the floor was familiar, with the round perfection only nature can achieve. An egg. "It's an egg, and it's mine." Why, you're possessive. The corner of his mouth twitched into a slight, crooked grin as the rugged bay went on, explaining how he'd simply found it. Most likely it would hatch into something, if it had been left around just like that—Helovia was an odd place. In what other corner of the world did horses find an egg, and immediately think, mine!? And why did it happen here, even to those who knew nothing of the companions?

Maybe it was the slumbering companion itself, who cast about for any mind to hold on to, any soul to care for it—magic, because magic was in the very fabric of this world.

He was getting sidetracked again. Focusing was harder when sick, at least that was what he had found, and his mind liked to take long, intricate strolls, ambling away from the current situation and into contemplations and problems that nearly made him get all tangled up in himself. "But if my heart would desire the death of someone," he interjected in a mild, slow manner, his mind forming the coherent sentence only the merest moment before the words tumbled off his tongue, "Should I still do it? Just because I want to? Knowing how much grief it will cause others?" There was no accusation in his voice, nor in his eyes; the pale gaze settled upon the short stranger. If he displayed one thing in that moment, it was curiosity. "Do you want for anarchy, Rostislav? Or simply the freedom of choice, unjudged by others, within the frame of certain morals?"