Just as easily as the tension built around them, tight as an electrically charged storm, so too did it disperse, scattering like rain. Words ran like cool water down the parched throat of a dying man, and a muzzle reached out like a hand to hoist the fallen wanderer back to his feet. Her feet.

Ampere let out a breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding. Her body tensed at first, instinctively flinching away from someone who she'd never regarded as friend. She stopped herself though, her flesh tingling as it hovered between retreat and return. Each blood vessel was strained with the sensation of the great indecision, until at last, she leaned back into the pale sultana, the stark contrast of their bodies and personalities touching for the first time in a gentle way. Static rolled off Ampere in a wave, dust crackling and stirring at her hooves, but quickly dying as the moment ended. All in all it lasted no more than fractions of a second, but for its implications, eternity had finally been reached.

Ampere felt the urging of tears at her eyes, but she resisted them. She wasn't sure how, she was such an emotional wreck, but either way she was thankful that she did not because it would have been utterly embarrassing. Instead she felt deflated, the overall relief not only of breath and tension and electricity, but of rejection - it all left in one great sweep of a pale wing and it left her feeling weak and mildly woozy, as if her soul had in part slithered out too. Truthfully, some of it had. Never before had she stood so exposed, so sincere, and with such simple words that had always been so damn hard to say. Now that she had she couldn't remember what made it so difficult. "I'm a fool is why", she thought shyly, a similar smile daring to form upon her features.

"Home," she breathed in agreement, her voice somehow growing even softer, a true feat for the Mother of Companions. She tucked her muzzle then, blinking against the sun and the sand and the white benevolence that swayed in front of her. It was a thankful motion, thoughtful and reserved. "How is it so easy?" she even dared to ask, looking her gift horse in the mouth. How could Sohalia simply let it be. She didn't even ask about where or why or anything. Did she even care, or was there more worth caring about now, in this moment, than what had already been done, wrong or right? For a brief moment Ampere even had the sickening thought it was a cruel joke, but her insecurities, deep as they were, quickly brushed that sour thought away. Even she knew better than to think that, especially of Sohalia.

For the first time she noticed Astraeus. He was beautiful, even in his well contained wrath. Even if she had tried, she could not be phased by the presence of their bond. She had learned there were far too many of them to simply hate them all, not that bits and pieces of her didn't continue to be revolted by it; even now crumbs of disgust collected in the corners of her being. Yet Ampere had recognized anger only ever seemed to breed more anger. It did not mean she would never snap again, because that rage still boiled under her skin, among all the other dozens of feelings she wore on her sleeve, but ti meant she at least recognized when she did, and that sometimes, just sometimes, she put out the effort to stop it.

Even after seeing him, Ampere continued to feel, surprisingly empty. Gone was the tight ball of rage and the slimy jealousy. Forgotten was the heavy grief and the windy joy. It was almost like she was an eagle desperately reaching for a branch within a wide stretch of sky; no matter how far her grasp, she felt only nothingness beneath her, and though she flew, it seemed like falling. She had been ready for yelling, ready for hard truths ushered on hushed breaths, ready even for a mocking laughter to hide the holes in her heart when she was to be turned away. She was not ready for pure and simple forgiveness. She did not deserve it, and she knew she could never return it, not like this.

Ampere blinked.

If it had been hard to talk before, it was even harder now. "Are you sure?" she finally asked, if only to soothe the disbelief gnawing in her gut. "What will I do?" She continued, almost unwilling to let Sohalia answer, in case she did have a change of heart. The question was serious, and nearly childlike as Ampere asked it, her gaze flicking anxiously back to Sohalia. She had never been in a herd, not really, until the Sun had invited her in. What a grave mistake to do it with a crown upon her head. Even if she hadn't of left, she didn't believe she could have been a sultana. Much of the herd, she could tell, didn't believe it either. That was fine, that was normal, really, but when they don't believe in you, and you don't believe in you, then there's nothing left. It was failure from the start.

Besides, in just this moment Sohalia had proven her worth as a ruler, and for that, she forever held Ampere's loyalty.No one had ever accepted her like that before. Not like that, not after everything they had been through.