As the girl brightened, Gaucho's heart seemed to collapse in on itself. Ampere had left, and like a ray of sunlight come to offering heat and light during a storm, Sohalia had returned to him.  He had been so greatful for her return (had he even told her? No he hadn't .. Though now as bitterness seeped through, part of him was glad that he didn't), that he hadn't pushed for any details of where she had been, other than the few tidbits she would offer to let him know that she was alright.

The buzzing faded, and for the first time in possibly Gaucho's entire life, he felt weak. Physically weak, as if he was going to simultaneously be sick to his stomach, and have his legs give out on him.

So it was true then. All of it was true, and standing before him, beaming up at him, was all the proof that he had needed.

Hypocrisy though it might have been, it certainly didn't feel that way. For Gaucho had never been with Ampere when Sohalia was around, and similarly in the other direction. The timing had always been so perfect and so the switching easy, but the Wildfire had been true to both the blue and the white, in his own way, when they were in his life. But Sohalia? That she had followed him ... Was it not even love between she and Kaj? He almost wished that it had been, for at least that could have served as a justification. But now the image that was growing in his mind was closer to the truth: a coupling of convenience. That made it all the harder to bear, for Gaucho had been here the whole time. Sohalia knew exactly where to find him, but she had gone elsewhere. Not only for haven, but for something else too it seemed.

Gaucho clenched his jaw once, then forced himself to exhale slowly.  "Yes, she here." He acknowledged, disallowing himself from revealing or taking out his emotions on the pale filly. None of this was her fault, after all. "She probably helping with church building. There-" Gaucho motioned with one large flaming wing towards the diviner's Fire, and where Maren, Cera, and Sohalia were likely working on the church. "Sohalia used to be crafter here, long time ago. That why she help them." Useless details. Or were they ones she already knew? Aleta knew to come here after all, had the Transcended told her daughter of her past? Or had she merely disappeared from her life too?

"If you Sohalia's daughter ... There will be many here who want to meet you." Her siblings, her family. Did she even know they existed?  Gaucho didn't think it was her place to tell the girl, but he could plant the idea in her mind. "Tell Sohalia Gaucho say for you to meet Rhoa and the others..she will know who."