The mare was attracted to intelligence.

It was not often she came across it. Not often an intelligent spark burned bright enough to emerge from the gloom of stupidity and ignorance that flooded this world, all worlds, in fact.

But even intelligence could be overwhelmed by troubling thoughts. It was perhaps a curse of intellect, for one that was able to think deeply and ponder broadly often discovered further troubles of the world to worry about.

Mirage often thought about those trialling things that were emotions. Emotions, so powerful that they often overwrote what cleverness might have otherwise acted. Emotions, so powerful that they stirred feelings of passion, zeal, even rage and blind fury. Mirage knew them all, and knew how to control each one, how to bend it to her will at the time. Oftentimes, she didn't allow any of them to surface.

But to be void of all emotions? To have worn one's body out so much so that only a vacant shell remained? Mirage too knew this feeling. That was why she was so excellent at portraying it to any onlookers. Her mask of stony indifference was in place today, as her golden eyes sought out the horizon over the great ocean. The fine line of the edge of the great blue was not seen today, blurred by a storm.

A flash of gold danced before them, a lightning strike illuminating the outline of a familiar creature. From her stance atop a sand dune, the mare turned only her tiara to spy the depressed stance of Lace. She felt curiosity, mingled with concern, but did not show such things.

Akaith was the next flash of gold to dance before her. The queen admired the grit that the littlest white showed, and loudly trilled her greeting to Fajira before joining in her play. Mirage, still as a statue, watched over the stallion, wanting to know what would become of him - she could offer him a world of opportunity, if only he would take those first, terrifying steps.

Did he not realise how valuable he could be? How much worth was placed on a steady mind, an intellectual perspective? While the Qian needed muscle power in order to complete their next step in this world, it did not lessen the need for more intelligence, more ideas, more tactics and more caring.

A breath was blown from her nostrils, silent against the howling winds. Eyes of wisdom awaited what would come; what would the outcome of this torrential storm be?