Illynx watches the anger take grip of Jorogumo’s features with a mask of glass, seeing the flickering of emotions undulate beneath the surface of the dark coated youth and letting her eyes remain hard and steely upon her. It was a lesson that had to be taught – there were those on the mountain she could not protect the little lost girl from, and such berating was only to spare her the violent end she might meet at the hooves and blades of others. The spider cannot understand that such harshness had spun from the lips of the Lady with affection, a desire to teach her how to exist in this world; Illynx had always worn an ego that seemed to shadow all of Helovia in its wake, but she had also always known better than to act a fool in front of those who held true power.

The only way to get it was to fight your way to the top, clawing and scratching, gouging and digging – or to ride the rise of another. The moon eyed girl was pushing herself towards the first, much more difficult option, one that would lead her down dark, lonely paths. Illynx does not want this for the spider or for any of her kin, to be sure, and so she sighs heavily as the tail of the child swishes and her words echo out, acidic as they had been for a while now.

The golden bitch responds with a tinkling of laughter, even to the rather dismal final statement of the girl’s diatribe as she turns to leave. Its mostly melodrama and teenage angst, she can see this, but it still pains her to think that Jorogumo is leaving this meeting feeling as if she was unjustly spoken to when, in all rights, Illynx had likely spared her from a fair bit of violence on behalf of the Engineer, less prone to lean on his words as the Lady did; it mildly offends her that the child is still so obviously stuck in the realm of woe is me, but she is also greatly thankful that she was given a son and not a girl child.

If her own memories of herself and this display were any evidence, girls were the death of their parents.

"Jorogumo, do not fret so deeply," she calls after her, her golden eyes glimmering with faint concern as the figure of the Engineer slips nearer her son, who happily drops his meal and moves closer to the one in the cave who isn’t yelling and carrying on with so many words he does not understand, "you must simply learn to live with others and not get yourself killed every five minutes."

When she looks back over to her chosen mate and the son they have made together, she finds the Engineer and the boy sharing a moment that is almost foreign and strange. Staring at the display of affection for a while with her gaze glistening emotionally, she observes the way the colt flicks his little lion’s tail about on his haunches and arches his neck up into the touch of his sire, his own gaze bright and full of wonder at the size of the man here with them. She smiles, the sweet smile of a mother watching something she is proud of, for both of them are among her treasures at this point in her life; no less valuable than the stone in which they sheltered from the harsh mountain winds, or the magic that coursed through her veins.

Rikyn looks up at the stallion as his masculine voice rumbles forth, catching the words with a face that says he is trying to understand but does not. Still, he nods his little muzzle up and down, slowly, turning his eyes to his dam as the Engineer looks over to her.

Her face in response to the thanks is one of pleased surprise; immediately her smile grows and she feels a tightening in her chest, a fierce pride and admiration for the man she had chosen rushing through her. "It is my pleasure to speak of your values," she says sweetly, "not to mention it would have been quite the biased contest." Her laughter rings out, and her son, too new to understand the purpose of the sound but finding it delightful and infectious, mirrors her. "She is a heinous bitch, to be sure, but I am fond of the little spider," her lips purse, the lower one pouting ever so slightly, "orphaned, lonely, and full of bitterness she does not understand. She reminds me of myself, when I was young. You would not have felt much more than loathing for me then… no one else did, to be sure." Her smile is soft and sad, her eyes slipping down towards the boy who she hopes to defend and stand alongside so that he does not suffer as she and Jorogumo had. She knew that path well – it was lined in bones and tears, and only after she had climbed the ruts alongside it and reached the open sun of Psyche and her Plague that she had found the woman she was now trapped inside that wretched little body.

@[Ulrik]