I AM IRON AND I FORGE MYSELF

Welp. She done fucked up.

Not in an egregious sort of way; no, she didn’t threaten anyone or forget to curb her blunt tongue. Wessex simply forgot what Tiamat had told her earlier - that they had lost a beloved leader - of course the wound must still be fresh, and she had to go and pour salt on it by carelessly dredging up her own memories. Because the truth of the matter is that while the mottled mare had been loyal to the stallion who accepted her as part of his Merc company, she had not loved him the way these two had clearly loved theirs. Her ‘loss’ is a drop in the bucket. Theirs seemed like it could consume the whole valley, drown them in its waves, and some might be happy to perish in the cold, salty depths.

The proof is in the murmur of Tiamat’s voice, the efforts to immediately bolster her own morale and yes, - it must be more for Erebos, Wessex thinks, more than for the blue maiden’s benefit. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him recoil, as if the very idea of the words are acidic, eating their way through a carefully mended mask of rank and duty. In that moment, she chooses not to turn and stare, though her eyes do glance over at him for a moment, noting an entirely different man than he was only seconds before. “Damnit…” she mutters under her breath as she shifts rather uncomfortably from one leg to the other.

Time to vanquish the elephant in the room; she clears her throat and with all the grace of a pregnant rhinoceros, bulldozes through it. “I am sorry, Tiamat told me on our walk here that the Basin recently lost - ah, Deimos - correct? I did not mean to re-open fresh wounds, or try and compare fondness to love. He must have been inspiring, if he can still garner such… grief.” A cough squeaks out, as if her conscious were trying to tell her to stop digging a bigger hole. Of course, she fails to listen. “I look forward to joining you on patrol, Erebos, and learning more about the Basin, Tiamat. Again, my apologies.” Horns dip in acknowledgement of their grief as she ends her much too formal speech.

Eager to step out of her own mess, Wessex takes a few steps forward and gazes towards the interior of the valley, letting her eyes adjust to the brilliance of the sun as it bounces off peaks still covered in snow. “Hopefully by tomorrow, you will have forgotten that I put my giant ass hooves in my mouth. But until then -” her head jerks towards the chilly, unexplored mystery that lays before them, “- I have some exploring to do.” And with that, she offers Tiamat a brazen wink and heads down the slope to what is, for now, her new home.

W E S S E X