He turned to face her and it was like he saw a ghost. But she had raced up to him, to see his beautiful green eyes as they bore back into her own. Except, where his carried a hint of confusion and bewilderment, hers were covered by a small film of tears. She looked at him now, pausing in her rampage to stare at him. He had more scars than previously, and he looked a bit worse for wear as she surveyed him. He looked nothing like the man he was when she saw him last – when the enemy band dove in and he had run off to see where his family was. Aelfwine, herself, had done her best to escape yet still stayed around in the hopes that Bartholomeo and his family would return to see her. She would take them somewhere safe, but when he didn’t show she only assumed the same fate as his family.

“Aelfwine.” He uttered, the sound of his voice saying her name again was soothing in an enraging kind of way. “I can explain, just not here. Please.” She wanted him to tell her at this exact moment just where he went. She wanted him to tell her what had been so important that he didn’t even try to find her. What would have happened if the enemy band took her for their own? Would he even wonder, or care at that point? He pointed his head toward the colt she had initially been following, and as he took a step back, she did the same. “What’s a bastard?” Her ears flattened against her skull with a soft damn it uttered in her mind. “It’s… Nothing.” She began, calming herself as she turned away from the colt to lower her head and rub her tears away on her leg as inconspicuously as she could.

“You’re in Helovia.” The boy began, and she finally turned to look at him. Her eyes immediately spotted the tree marking and her stomach sank. She shook her head slightly, hearing the boy speak of Dragon’s Throat, and it was as if her stomach began to roll again. She nodded along with him, trying to force a smile on her face as her emerald gaze looked for the boy’s. “Is your father Tilney?” She questioned, seeing as she completely missed the introductions beforehand. “If so, then Bartholomeo here is your uncle. And I am your aunt!” She added in as happily as she could despite the horrific painful feeling in her stomach.

Her head turned to Barty then, her frown returning to her lips. “Tilney is here, he lives in the Edge where I live. Arah is here as well – though Tilney has had a few children at this point now as you can see.” She quietly murmured to him, trying to point with her head to the boy that stood among them. “I followed Tuppence here, she has … had Carlisle’s remains. We planned to bury them in the old ways of our home, but she lost them. I haven’t been able to find her yet. It was by circumstance that I managed to find Tilney at all.” She admitted with another frown. Then, her head turned to Byron as she forced a smile again. “What are you doing all the way out here? Does your mother know where you went? You’re quite a long ways from home, my dear.” She added in.