Zèklè

The walk home is far more pleasant that the whole debacle you just witnessed, Isopia's company far preferable to the squabbling... Edgelets? (nope, not quite, but you'll keep working on it) whose voices rose so quickly, and like so many aggravated geese. Iso doesn't say much, at first, and neither do you - you're busy mulling over the things you heard, the things you watched, and the way the Edgeians (still wrong) reacted to each other. You rather liked Queen Alysanne and Miss Iona, but as for the others, well... let's just say you were happy to be living in the Falls. Besides, you don't want to strain your friend - she's just fought a battle, after all, and a rather ridiculous one at that. All this is a bit too much for a bag, seemed to the the consensus of the gathering, though you can't necessarily say you fault any one person for this whole debacle.

Well, maybe Cowboy. But that's another story.

It is Isopia who uncharacteristically breaks the silence, and, even more uncharacteristically, the thing she offers is information- information about herself. It takes everything you have not to stop and gape at this unprecedented event, and even with all your self restraint you can't hold back the pleased smile that spreads across your lips, the warmth that spreads inside your chest. You look up at her, eager - "Nope," you concur, and then follow up: "Is that... where your Ma lived? Does she still live there?" Iso once told you that she and her mother weren't close, and though you didn't understand it then, it makes some more sense now. What pain would you have been spared, if you didn't share such a bond with your mother? If she didn't have such room to hurt you, and you her?

But then again, what love would you have missed out on? What joy? You adore your mother, despite her shortcomings and your disappointments. Would you really trade that for anything?

No.

Thankfully she's continuing on, her next string of words a careful composition, a series of meticulous yet uncertain strokes by a novice trying out the art of painting with emotion. You, of course, notice this as well. Strange, how you never noticed most of Isopia's quirks until she started trying to overcome them. You blink, your face inexplicably flushing, because it's as close as she's ever come to saying she appreciates you, as strange as that seems now. You always just took for granted that Iso cared about you the same way you cared about her. "'Course!" you answer brightly, beaming, pleasure and surprise with this new Isopia spinning a giddy melody in your throat. "I wouldn't'a let you go alone- I mean, not that you were alone, 'cus Jiji an' Csilla were there, too. But y'know." You're floundering now, Zero, letting your hooves cram into your mouth again. Pull it together, boy. Bring it home. "I'm always gonna be there."

Real smooth, Zero. 9/10.

Questions are easier than answers like this, so let's return to those. When in doubt you retreat into your curiosity, and that trait has yet to fail too spectacularly. "Did you know any of them? From when you lived there before?" you wonder, your bright eyes seeking the hybrid's golden ones. Had they been like family, the way the Throat was for him? But then- does Isopia even know what that feels like, family? You know she has cousins in the other demigods including Mesec, but even them she doesn't talk of much. You'd like to see them together sometime, you think. To see Iso with a family.

You bite your lip hard, thinking about the family she nearly had. The family she chose to forget, because having it, knowing it, hurt too much.

How was that even fair?

And in the sea that's painted black,
Creatures lurk below the deck
But you're a queen and I'm a lionheart