no dreams within her heart,
but dreams of love

The ocean mare’s ears slant excitedly forward when Lena divulges her experience of the herd lands, the enthusiasm trickling down into every crevice of her dainty features. “What are they like?” She asks, perhaps a little too eagerly, her sheltered heart far too naive to imagine what horrors and tragedies might have befallen the Time Mender in her travels. Tiamat could never comprehend the cruelties that lay festering in the minds and hearts of others, a diseased darkness that fuels the hate fire for vengeance and blood. That anyone would have wanted to capture and harm her dear friend (or anyone, for that matter), would have never crossed her mind.

Bright eyes drift momentarily to the stone floor, briefly abashed by the swell of excitement and curiosity in her breast. “I’ve never visited any of the other herd lands—or even some of the wild lands, I think. The world can be so big,” Tiamat shakes her head with a breath of laughter. The wanderlust is transparent in her voice—the insatiable desire to explore and learn, to discover all of the beauties and miracles that this world has to offer. Of course, she knows that her curiosity will never be appeased. Every glance reveals new treasures—the discoveries shifting as the earth does—but this only burns her curiosity brighter still.

Pressing closer to the brown mare’s shoulder, she listens to Lena’s theory of the World’s Edge, of their craftsmen with glass rather than cloths. “Glaziers,” the ocean mare murmurs quietly, her gaze drifting upwards once more, lingering along the intricate lines and dazzling colors. They play with the light in such a way that Tiamat almost feels like it is spring inside these pillars, a perpetual promise of new beginnings and life. There is no doubt that this pavilion is the work of true artisans.

“I think,” the blue mare looks to Lena with a playful twinkle in her eye, a shimmer of fantasy and imagination that shapes the melody of her words, “that it was built for something great—the Gods, maybe—as a place of gatherings and celebrations. Of happy times.” She smiles blissfully, readily caught up in daydreams of good cheer and prosperity. “Where everyone would come together,” the smile broadens across sapphire lips, and her gaze returns to the Time Mender from where it had wandered, asking excitedly, “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Tiamat giggles happily, the length of her lion tail arcing behind her.

Looking around them now, she can see it—the joyful gatherings, the sense of community, the peace. The Gods know that she clings to that picture now more than ever, after having witnessed the horrors of bloodshed and hate in the recent battles. She smothers the discomfort of those nightmares gladly, ever eager to imagine more peaceable times (and she is not alone). “What do you think?” Tiamat nudges Lena with a brush of her muzzle, encouraging her to join her in her happy fantasies.

“Speech.”