so i listen to the    wind for an answer

The deer like girl edges toward Lyanna, and she gives the girl a quiet nod of reassurance. She didn’t think Yael was any threat. Not that she couldn’t be, but rather that this was not the type of distress that was too likely to end in violence. Though to be fair, she can’t be sure. She’s never seen someone so upset either, and she knows what this moment is like all too well. But this mare – it seems like she was ripped from her home in a way Lyanna was not. Perhaps that’s not true, but she thinks it must be. One does not cry quite so hard when they know why they left.

Had she ever cried over the loss of her family? Briefly, yes. The shock always leads to tears, and she knows the kind that Yael shed’s now. She has been there. But had she ever mourned her family? Not really. She’d hardly even cried. When your life is threatened, there’s no time for tears. She’d moped and flown and pretended she was alright for the better portion of a season, yes. But she’d never simply sat down and cried for them.

There was something sad in that realization. But now is not the time for her to be sad.

Yael’s first response is Yes, and then quickly No. “The kind of hurt my magic can’t help you with then, but I will help however I can,” she says kindly, satisfied the mare is not injured in a physical way, and knowing there is far less anyone can do to patch a hole in the heart. Time, and a place to start over.  The deer-like girl offers her the Basin, mentioning that her mother is the Lady.  Lyanna is only vaguely familiar with the rulers of the Basin, but she’s careful to keep an eye on the girl. Sending a princess home bruised perhaps wasn’t a good idea – though at least, Lyanna could heal a bruise.

Before she can respond more though, another joins them. The white form is familiar, Lyanna offers her friend a warm smile as the girl comes to stand besides her. Erthe’s words steer the conversation now, offering this mare a home in the Edge and a respite for the filly. “I admit, I have not herd of this B’kanna either. That does not mean others have not, though I am not sure it’s likely to be close,” she says honestly. It wouldn’t do to lie to the mare. And Lyanna had traveled through so many lands to get here, she feels like she might have at least stumbled on the name in her travels if it were nearby.

“You are both more than welcome in the Edge, be it for a respite on your travels, or a longer stay. I can’t imagine either of our leaders would mind,” she says, solidifying Erthe’s invitation. Lyanna may technically have more authority, but she never did see it that way. Erthe had been around longer, and to Lyanna, had just as much say. “They let me in when I needed a place to figure my new life out, after all.” Elsa had found her in the Threshold, but Alysanne and Tembovu had welcomed her at the border. Alysanne had been her mentor, friend, and now Queen. She cannot imagine a world in which Aly turned anyone in need away.

lyanna