There was something about letting go that felt almost like a cleansing rain, as though her soul had been washed clean. The taint of the grudge that had been so well-hidden in the back of her mind had bothered the dove more than she had known, and when Ampere accepted her touch, she felt utterly liberated, as though there had never been anything wrong in the first place. It was so easy to simply welcome the blue home - and it was Ampere's home, just as much as it was Sohalia's, even if the darker mare had only inhabited the Dragon's Throat briefly. She smiled, relief appearing is orbs that had, only moments before, reflected such uncertainty.

It would be some time before the hurts caused by the blue's actions would be well and truly erased - even now, there was the slightest of whispers in the deepest, darkest recesses of the angel's brain, insisting that Ampere could hardly be trusted after everything she had done. But this persistent mistrust was hastily buried, for the dove had every intention of forgiving and forgetting, of welcoming the mare that she had never thought to call a friend into her herd with open wings.

"Of course I'm sure," she answered Ampere with a genuine gravity that belied her decision to move past their mutual history. "The Dragon's Throat is your home," she added with forceful certainty, despite Astraeus's silent snort from within her mind. He was not particularly pleased with this turn of events, for he was not nearly as forgiving as his bonded. The blue-tinged mare, as far as he was concerned, deserved no gleeful homecoming, no heartfelt welcome. He would be far happier if she just went back to wherever she came from.

But the Transcended silenced him with a calming stroke of her mind. He would see, she was sure, that Ampere was different now, just as the dove was different than she had been in the time before the Darkness. At Ampere's final question, though, she laughed, for in truth, there was not all that much that had changed. They had both grown and matured, had come to see that perhaps they would do better as allies (or even friends) that they would have as enemies, but Sohalia was still more scholar than anything, and she was willing to bet that Ampere retained her skill on the battlefield. "Why, whatever you'd like!" she declared. "We are sadly in need of warriors, I'm afraid. Neither Africa nor I are particularly adept fighters, as I'm sure you recall." Her face lit suddenly. "Actually, I would quite like to learn, if you're up for it once you've settled back in! Gaucho would have started to teach me already, but-" She paused suddenly, her gaze flickering away shyly as she remembered Ampere's last meeting with Gaucho (as far as the dove knew, anyway). He's mine now, she told herself firmly. And I'm going to make sure it stays that way!

She swallowed. "Well, we've been busy, is all." The blue had quite a bit of catching up to do, but the question of her place within the herd was surely more important than idle gossip. She turned slightly, inviting Ampere to walk alongside her on the way back to the oasis. It was a natural motion, the way her wings flickered, settling feathers that had gone astray in her flight; the way she nodded her head ever-so-slightly to indicate the direction in which they were headed; the way a cheerful grin overtook her features. Astraeus, satisfied now that his bonded was not in imminent danger, took flight, disgusted with the easy acceptance that his bonded had granted a former enemy (in his mind). "Of course," she continued with only a slight pause as she began to walk, "if you find something else more suited to your tastes, then you should pursue it."

"talk talk talk"

Live... I want to live on fire
Die... I want to burn out brighter
Brighter than the northern lights
Want to live to feel the daylight