[Note: I aged d’Arcy up to about a year and a half. Shouldn’t make a huuuuge difference]

It was easiest tor the girl to trail slightly behind her mentor. From half a step back she was better positioned to watch the mare as they moved northward and therefore better prepared to follow any changes in direction in the trail. She followed, mile after mile without complaint and listened avidly to any tidbits of information that Raedin gave her along the way. Young as she was, d’Arcy had at least reached to point in her intellectual development where she understood that she did not know everything, though she was already determined to remedy that defect and what better way than learning from the World’s Edge Sleuths?

Agile red legs, stockinged in white, picked their way carefully across the frozen ground keeping her close to the pale mare and her forrest companion. Though she bristled at the though of needing protection from most others, the cerndyr did not bother her. His eyes were kindly and soft, and though she was hesitant to place to much trust she liked him to be near. If it was his power, like she suspected, that had hidden Raeden once, maybe he would hide her if they came across any trouble.

“His name is Déodat. He’s a corporal for the Basin.” She said in voice that was already starting to loose the cherubic soprano of childhood. She answered the question with out any hesitation but, as was her wont, did not volunteer anymore information than was required. d’Arcy followed Raeden across the narrow pass, eyeing the old sentinels with a wary eye but shifted her blue gaze to meet her chaperone’s teal as the latter warned her about pushing limits. Red head bent in a swift nod of ascent and she came to stand at the mare’s side, but was soon turning at the sound of another.

A star-clad mare stepped from the shadows and greeted them politely. the little red bent her head attentively, as her mother had taught her, and then took a moment to take in the mare. The strange dusky blue of her coat was certainly interesting but not unheard of in the Edge. It was the title she gave that interested d’Arcy. Here stood the Basin’s counterpart to her own mother and the girl wandered how she measured up. at first meeting Ki’irha seemed smaller and perhaps softer than the Ironheart, but d’Arcy put little worth in what she saw at first glance. Even after her nod she did not speak, instead glancing at Raeden to see if she would introduce them. She had yet to allow herself any real emotional attachment to the pale mare, but she certainly planned to learn from her.

ain't no mercy in my smiling
only fangs and sweet beguiling