Though Cera had worked all his youth to see the glow of pride and accomplishment in those familiar golden eyes, suddenly he felt quiet and reserved. Midas did not have the right, any longer, to be proud. Cera felt sick, to hear the words fall from shadowed lips like acid rain. His smile was withdrawn, strained. Silent. His voice does not ring out to assure Midas that of course he would honor his position, of course he would love and cherish it and the help it granted his people. There is nothing but the forced curl of his lips and the blank slate of his emerald eyes, a mannequin with a painted smile. Hiding his thoughts from his father, not sure himself what they entailed of in the first place. Merely knowing it was a storm he could not weather in that moment. Later, in the crook of Ranjiri's shoulder, with Ryuu's quiet eyes and solemn face watching on, would he absolve himself of his sorrows and the plague of his convoluted thoughts. Only in the dark velvet of her skin, knowing she understood the abandonment, the loneliness and pathless wandering, could he let these torments free. They only had each other, anymore. They were all they had left. How dare Midas appear and...and...try and rip apart the tiny family they'd finally managed to create? Why? Why did he have to create waves to disrupt the happiness they'd worked so hard to grow?

But none of this is visible, instead he merely appears weary and worn, as he well should be after battling a cougar headfirst. Cougars gave wonderful hugs with their claws, Cera would be one to know. Yet when Ranjiri is brought up, he cannot help but feel smug for his success with his own vague reveal. Surely he cannot let Midas suffer, assume that Ryuu truly was the blood of his sister, but...was he not? He looked every bit like Ranjiri, and when Cera had first found them on the borders, the waning foal easily hidden behind a single wing...well, he had certainly thought the colt was Ranjiri's. Would it be the right thing to do? No. But on the other end of the debate, Ranjiri loved Ryuu so fiercely, she considered him hers in everything, blood included. Damn away all that any other soul could attempt to combat her with. Cera didn't even dare to say that Ryuu was not hers by birth. She was a terrifying mother. "I wasn't aware until she appeared in the desert with the babe, small enough to be concealed by wing, begging for entrance." The truth, of course. Though it pressed even further the shock of the situation, for since Ranjiri was born Cera had never strayed from her side. She had been his princess all his life.

A strange sort of power, even a perverse pleasure spread like venom through Cera's system at Midas having to request further steps into the herdlands. And Cera knew firsthand the effects of poison. Even so, he nods without further hesitation, turning and limping inland. "Of course. They will be ecstatic to see you." At least, he hoped. When Cera had finally found Ranjiri, she had been a sobbing mess. Ilaria slid from his shoulders to race forward and seek out Ranjiri and Ryuu, while Cera led his father onwards. The reminder of his quest brought attention to the amulets hung round his frame, normally forgetting them with how they lay upon his skin all hours of the day. "To encounter fire and store them within these amulets until all are used, and return to him." A simple enough quest, but one Cera was finding increasingly difficult to complete with having to help raise a colt and tend a herd.