Tiamat—Lady of the Aurora Basin.

The thought of it still sends shivers down the sea maiden’s spine—shivers of both excitement and nervousness. The reality of her promotion hasn’t quite settled in yet, and she doubts that it will anytime soon, or if it ever will. How had Deimos acclimated himself to his crown? How had Hotaru shouldered this massive responsibility? The expectation of her predecessors is daunting, almost frightening (how could anyone follow the greatness of the Reaper?) but her god’s words resonate with a firm and comforting answer. She must lead this herd as she would—not as anyone else.

Musing over the Time God’s wisdom, the blue maiden rests somewhere near the center of the Basin’s valley. She grazes leisurely, grinding her teeth together as her eyes follow her thoughts, trailing casually over the shimmering surface of the lake, the shadowed treeline, and the frosted peaks that rise towards her mother sky.

Lifting her head from the cold, grassy ground, she sniffs casually at the mountain air, inhaling a musky scent that is recently familiar to her. Flicking her leonine tail excitedly around her ankles, the newly-crowned queen suddenly turns, and picks up a slow canter towards the Basin’s entrance. It isn’t long before the massive machine sentinels come into view, standing as silent keepers of the highland valley, and below them, is someone who brightens her smile. “Reichenbach!” Tiamat calls out to the mahogany stallion, releasing a whinny of welcome as the distance between them diminishes.

Soon she comes to a halt with the chiming of seashells and the billowing of sapphire locks, her white eyes sparkling beneath the sun’s rays.

Never one to harbor much inhibition, the Ocean’s Light steps forward without hesitation, lifting her head to place it around the stallion’s withers and embrace him in a hug. She feels so small compared to the width of his brawny chest, happily breathing in the manly smell of his black curls (that nearly swallow her as they fall around her cheeks and neck). When she pulls away, the Lady is grinning freely.

“What a lovely surprise! I hadn’t expected to see you this far north. Welcome to my home,” she sweeps her head to gesture to the mountain valley that stretches out behind her, as beautiful as heaven for the blue maiden. She hopes that the stallion has been able to find such a place since his arrival to Helovia. “How have you been? How has the Throat treated you?” Tiamat returns her attention to Reichenbach when she questions him, sincere in her curiosity.

“Speech.”