Less than a season ago and she would have enjoyed the silence- traded nothing else in the world for it. Now it drove her mad, now it brought her tattered mind to the brink and tested it. She stole and lied when she could; hid in the shadows or in plain site. She carried that damn flower to rest in the oasis by the desert's only water, and assigned Kye to guard it each day. The bond was broken but the chain of command was not. What Kye had been told to do half a season ago she would continue to do. She was loyal, at least now. Now that Xira had no one else, no other distractions. Her attentions were all for Kye now, or they had the potential to be. At last the fucking falcon was happy.

But now an eclipse came and threw it all into turmoil. The days spent alone became silent as the chestnut roan could no longer speak even to her bonded. The bird grew restless and violent, began to kill and cry. She was born into the hunter she'd always supposed to be, now that she had no other distractions. No other distractions but that damn flower.

That flower that wilted no matter where it was put, that flower that refused to drink water like an errant child. The flower that had a mind of its own and only ten drooping petals. The flower given to her by a god so that she might be able to see the past through nature; maybe even someday the future. Well she could see the future now, and that fucking plant was going to die. If she didn't crush it herself out of sheer frustration, it was going to fall on its own. Sunlight, warmth, and water had done nothing for it. She had tried everything she had known and it had done nothing. In her own way Kye had helped too, but bringing a flower a dead rat didn't do much for its health.

So in her impatience and wild fits of manic rage, she had decided to focus her energies elsewhere. To her duty as sleuth, for once. News of a fourth god, as if they needed more, had reached her astute, teardrop ears. Surely there was more to come, surely his involvement with the previous members of the Edge was not a coincidence. And who better to ask than a creature as wise and involved as Aurelius? She had captured him with ease, and waited for him to catch up with her now as she stood beside the oasis and her precious charge. Above her Xira called out, but the sound meant nothing; it was empty, they both were. With deep blue eyes she looked on into the mid afternoon and waited for Aurelius. He was bound by herd and land law to her side, she could only hope he'd say something useful while he was there.