[Geeze, what asshole replies so quickly >.> It's almost like it was too good not to reply to! ]

Isopia nodded easily enough. The first time we met.. certainly lent itself to assumptions of further meetings, and part of her - the jealous side of herself which almost never made its way to the surface - wanted Nymeria to know that there had been more than one meeting. Perhaps it was because Isopia felt so rejected by Volterra as a lover. At first, she had perhaps been insulted by the fact that Volterra had shared nothing of his 'friendship' with his sister, but now? Now Nymeria was just another from who Volterra had withheld something. Would Isopia feel satisfaction by dangling the possibility of multiple meetings with the ruby-eyed stallion over Nymeria? She didn't know. Cattiness was not normally something Isopia was drawn too - indeed she likely wasn't even aware she was doing it.

And yet ... Part of her so badly wanted to rub it in. Oh you didn't know? We go way back. Surprised he didn't mention me, me being a big important demigoddess and all that. I suppose you just weren't worth telling, just the way I wasn't worth-

But even her mind, vast and articulate as it was, couldn't further that intangible thought. That truth was still blocked from her conscious mind. She still couldn't cope with what had happened.

And so, any bitchiness on Isopia's part died with that unthought-parable in her mind.

If Isopia and Nymeria were more honest with one another, they might have been easy allies. But unsolicited honesty was neither of their strengths.

"I think-" Isopia paused, her draconian head tilting slightly.

What did she think?

Oh, on top she hated him, thought him stupid and ignorant, and a fool. But even as emotionally clouded as her judgement was, she could at least recognize it for what it was. He had wounded her, and she was healing. Would she always hate him? No-, her mind immediately answered. The trickle of love that still flowed through her veins assured her that she wouldn't. Besides,  Nymeria's question had specifically been What did you think... Isopia tried to think, but found that early infatuation seemed to cloud her judgement of the stallion from the beginning. Over and over her mind returned not to objective considerations of Volterra, but of their shoulders pressed together when they made her hottub. Of her body falling on top of his, urging him to rise the day of the wildfire, her instant jealousy at the sight of Verzes circling Mirabella, of (flashes of her body slipping into equine form, draped over him. Sliding down his crest. Finding herself near him. Find him near her. Finding-).

Isopia blinked.

"I thought he wasn't the brightest." She replied truthfully, recalling his failure to adequately answer her questions about Verzes name, and how he had missed every single subtle signal she had tried to send him, both positive and negative. "But that he was strong. His magic comes from my father I think," (Why was that relevant?) "and I suppose he uses it well enough." Here, she thought of him fighting the Riftian Gods, but also assisting with her hottub.

Isopia leveled her draconian golden stare at Nymeria now. It was as close to something like vulnerability as Isopia could get. "But I think he doesn't know what he wants. He thinks with the wrong head too much of the time, natural impulses or no. I met children he didn't even know he had -" Her head shook as she briefly wished she could just shove her thoughts into Nymeria's mind.

His sexual cravings are natural, but to give into them endlessly ... I told him once that was alright, but he's no hedonist, is he? He has goals. And he is ruining his chances of achieving them by acting like a child. If she was omniscient, she might have thought, He could have had you and I, incomparable and indomitable queens by his side. Now he only his one night stands and a plethora of babies.

"-he might be a stallion, but a boy's way of thinking is deciding his future."

It no longer felt right to feel powerful in the body she currently wore. Because she hadn't been - not in the way that had mattered most. She had been conquered, and that had been that.

Exhaling, Isopia turned her long scaled neck towards the dragons on her back. She trilled gently to them, and Hubris breathed a distracted breath of sparks and jumped into the air, motioning for the black to follow. As they left her, Isopia took a step forward, and as she did so, scales moulded into maroon and cream flesh, and her limbs dwindled in size. She was still taller than Nymeria even as horse, but perhaps the distance between them was muted now by their nearly reciprocal appearance.