Through the mountains she strode, her head raised proudly despite the turmoil that broiled within her. To be honest, she only wandered because she felt lost, and she did not wander far because she halfway worried that she might return to find her crown replaced by someone else; either way, the summer heat and her northern coat didn't work well together much further south than the Threshold or perhaps the northern span of the Thistle Meadow, despite her heart's desire to be as far away from those who she once considered to be loyal to their leaders and who were now found lacking. Instead of dwelling on her thoughts, however, she simply chose to venture out along the tried and true paths of those who kept patrols of the singular path to their valley as well as the surrounding area and distract herself with whatever she might find along the way.

The sun rested at a midpoint between morning and afternoon, beating down overhead but kept at bay by the swift and cool winds that slipped down the snow laden peaks to the slightly green valleys and rivulets between the colossal mountains, the Lady walking at a leisurely pace and looking about her as inquisitively as she could muster. She attempted even as she walked alone to maintain a visage of composure, feeling mildly ashamed of herself for having reacted so emotionally in front of the herd and attempting to regain whatever face she may by containing herself behind a veneer of glass and ice, liable to rupture at any moment despite how deeply she had layered herself beneath their folds.

Still, being away from the busy daily life of the Aurora Basin had cleared her head quite considerably, and while she was not consciously sure of what she was searching for, her mind took note of no sign of her fallen friend having passed this way on her exodus from the hidden valley for her; while she had not gone out the day following the meeting as she had promised herself, she did still intend to find the Dark Empress and receive the only side of the story that could truly be believed as far as she was concerned; the woman had been a part of her life for a very long time, and not once in all that while had she ever thought the black mare to have been untruthful or deceitful on any occasion - at least not towards Illynx. How she was towards the rest of the world, well, that was why she loved her so much; never had she met another who she could understand so completely and easily as the Lady Psyche, and she doubted that she ever would again.

But time is peculiar, life even more so; the golden backed wench could not know what tomorrow's weather would bring much less what fate would toss into her path or rip out from beneath her hooves. She should know these things by now, considering the trajectory that her life had followed since birth - that some things, no matter how deeply you desire them or how firmly they are embedded into your beliefs, how savagely one beats their limbs against the current does not slow the pace in which the water pulls you under. The only choice, truly, is to let the water fill your lungs or to rise once more to the surface.

Illynx would ascend, let the rest of them be damned.

@[Zar'roc]

There was a river once,
with many round stones
enchanted by shallow hopes
of embracing the ocean;
water is peculiar this way,
how its life is a line
that cannot bend or change
without the approval of its bed.