Dragomir stands rather quietly amidst all the bustle, finding that the number of those present leaves him with very little to input aside from what is left out by the others. There is plenty of emotion here, which is fine by him – he only knows Destrier as a distant but well respected member of his herd, someone who had always been helpful when help was needed, and so he has nothing in comparison to the flood of love that ripples from both the friesian’s son and Resplendence.

There is something about a girl who is missing, which makes Dragomir sad and pulls his ears down either side of his head. It never stops hurting to hear that his herd-mates, however distant he was from them, had suffered so much during the times of darkness. He had very little to lose and still had suffered its wrath – Semira had gone, and so had Mirage, and only one had come home. But to lose a true family member, not just friends and mentors discovered on the trails of life?

It would be less painful to lose an eye, of this he is sure. He can hear it in their voices, more pungent its message to the young man than the reunion of father and son had been. Whoever Laila is, he hopes they find her – and he hopes that no one he knows will ever have to lose anyone again in such a way if something terrible has befallen her.

The discussion of healing runs idly by the crafter, who respects the gardeners for their task but finds that he is too large and grows too lost in his thoughts to be anything more benevolent than doom to the plants beneath him. He would like to learn, and had tried at one point beneath the healer, Smoke – but all he was good at was harvesting things already grown, not giving life to seeds as Alysanne and Resplendence did.

He nods solemnly once the conversation turns to the lost of the Edge, finding much truth in the statement but little solace. However, a question quickly floods into the dark void that begins to grow inside his heart as he dwells on Mirage, and he returns to the present and finds a smile on his face that hides his inner pain well enough for the moment. "Kahlua and Kaj," he says, having giving up on his woe over the Queen’s lack of love for him, feeling the pride swell in him as he says their names that he hopes makes it to his face. While they are not the Dragon Queen, who ruled alone much of the time and did not need one another as the current rulers do, he finds that together they will do well by the Edge. He holds no more delusions that Kahlua is wise or ponderous, but he does believe that Kaj is what he once believed Kahlua to be, and no matter how intelligent or not the Queen may be, her heart was true and her soul purely dedicated the practice of peace.

Perhaps that was why he loved her – she gleamed even in shadow.

He chases the thought away.

He had loved her.

Even when he knows it is only a lie he tells himself to heal.



Dragomir</style>
where light shines, shadows will stretch</style>