Tuor was sheathed with a quick, aggressive motion. His metal slid out of sight with a wink, the viewing plane cut off from Ampere’s critical gaze. Her efforts thus far to find the missing cloak had been futile; how do you find something when its very nature is to remain unseen?

It was a question that had been bothering her more and more as the days wore on, because it made her wonder, just how had this thief known to take the cloak at all? Yes, a thief, of that she was sure. Maybe if this had been under Gaucho’s reign, if her daughter had been younger, she wouldn’t have sided so strongly with the little ghost’s firm remarks that it wasn’t lost. That wasn’t the case though- Tae was grown, and Gaucho was dead.

Gaucho was dead, and the herd was weak.

He had been an impressive stallion in countless ways, but his prowess as a lead was something else entirely. He had patrolled the lands relentlessly, chasing down any possible threat with a ruthlessness sure to last in their memory. If something of his, somehow, was taken- he hunted it down like a man possessed.
That, or he used his herd. Gaucho was only one horse after all, and for all his god’s favor, he couldn’t have done everything he did alone. That’s what made him the Sultan of legend, what left his mark on the land long after his body had cooled. The Wildfire raised up his kin, appointing a strong lead to govern beside him, and a full deck of ranks to keep watch below him.

Meanwhile Ampere couldn’t even find a goddamn healer to mend the ache Megaera had left in her side since their fight.

Maybe the question then wasn’t what thief took the cloak, but what member of their herd didn’t stop it? Ampere hadn’t seen a member of their sneak rank in ages, which might have meant they were doing a good job if not for the proof otherwise. Still, she saw their sneaks more than she saw Sikeax.

She’d hoped the mare would prove her initial thoughts wrong - had wanted to believe the Sun God saw something more in her than Ampere could, if she’d just have faith. If there had been anything better in Sikeax though, the bright flames of the God’s attention must have scorched it out of her, because Ampere only saw the burnt remains of a herd that once blazed wild, now grown dead and empty as ash.

Contemptuous, Ampere was returning to the Throat after her futile search, angling down when she spotted her daughter. The thoughts still rankled inside her as she landed near the ghost, so she had little to offer in way of calming advice when she gazed at her clearly enraged child. She should be angry, Ampere thought with a bitter snarl.

"We’ll find it," she reassured after a moment of contemplation, but her tone suggested that wasn’t the entire solution. Ampere didn’t doubt they’d find it, but she wondered, would that be enough?