There is hardness to the white and crimson damsel that is foreign to Illynx’s memories of her, but she knows all to well how time can lash one’s figurative skin again and again until it was thick as stone and just as cold. That so many children have been subjected to this cruelty in this world perhaps deepens her desire to purify it, to create a place where, even if one’s father and mother fail them, there is a family in which they can submerge into, a place where ties can be made and hearts could grow to their full size and potential.

Would Illynx still be evil if the world was to right itself as she envisioned? If no one could look upon her as a villain because their flesh rotted from their bones, what would she be then?

A queen, a true one; those who saw evil in her would find no more reason to loathe or hate her, to draw conclusions that she was wicked or unjust, for all her decisions from then forward would be to better what she had already brought into actuality. A time of peace, a glorious and splendid realm in which only the worthy walked and shone, an era of prosperity unseen by any generations before her own. Perhaps she is mad, to see so much hope in such a dark agenda, but she has never paused to consider such things.

The snort of the daughter of Psyche draws the gilded Lady’s eyes back into reality, fading from the misty thoughts that were invoked anytime she looked on the babe alongside her or mentioned his name; he was a crucial piece to their indentures, something that they all would have to bring into the world if the world was ever to be whole and pure again, and he only deepens her desire to give him all that she has wanted in her life.

She smiles, softly, watching her innocent question bloom into the first explosion she had hoped for. The words immediately disregard that she is fine, plunging instead into a heated inquiry as to the lineage of the child and a seamless answer as to who she thought it was in the first place.

All of this makes the smile bloom into a long, hearty laugh that rings around them, the son of the Engineer looking from one woman to the other in confusion as to these conflicting emotions. One is angry and hostile and his mother is hemming about like a pleased hen. It makes his head hurt. He goes back to eating… or tries to.

"Because he is not Mauja’s,” she says, her giggles having brought bright beads of liquid to her eyes which she blinks away mirthfully, "Rikyn, come forward.” Sighing and slouching his slender head down as he slips from her side and out in between the two mares, he glances quite shyly at Sno before turning his eyes questioningly to his dam.

It is a lesson that Psyche should have taught her, one that Mauja should have shared. It makes her angry that neither of her parents have enough care in their hearts for their daughter to teach her not to make a fool of herself while filled with emotion. "He is more his sire’s son than my own. Tarnish the metal a deeper shade along his frame, add curvature to the length of his horn,” her gaze twinkles as she runs her eyes along the child, endlessly proud of each inch of perfection that she and Ulrik had conceived together, "its obvious enough that I should perhaps take offense to your assumption that I’m an idiot like your mother or his other abandoned women… but I do not, for she is an emotional fool as is your father and it is their fault that your heart has overloaded your wit.”

Her face is soft as she looks back at her niece, wanting to convey that she means no offense by her harshness and that she understands why it is that the only child of her sister is so lost and angry.

"Do not misunderstand me. I love your mother dearly and your sire did much for my people whilst he ruled them, and I mean no offense to them or yourself…" she sighs, watching her son slowly slink back to her side as he figures his job is done, "but neither of them did well by you. Mauja has done well by nothing he has ever touched, and Psyche is too lost in the darkness of her own being now and was too consumed by desire before. I think of you and his children with much sadness… I wish I might have been more of Psyche’s life when you were brought into it. I should have protected her from herself for your sake, but she always seems so strong, especially when she’s about to break.”

She feels the warm embrace of her son alongside her, a soft smile lighting her face at the emotional surge that rises at the touch; a sigh ripples forward, eyes soft and misty as she looks long and deep into the face of the lost child of the snow.