Phae watched mutely as physical emotion overcame the stallion she once loved so - still? That remained to be seen. She heard a sob escape his lips, and watched his frame begin to shake with grief. An overwhelming desire to rush into the water and assuage his pain took hold of her, but she was stuck in place but her pride. What is it you want from me, P-Phaedra She heard him ask, and in that moment, she was almost sure that if she ran to him now, they could put all this behind them. All of this had started with her tears staining his coat - her head pressed against his chest, and it could all end if she allowed him to do the same to her now. But love was a funny thing...as much as she wanted to run to him and console him, to be understanding, another part of her didn't. She wanted him to feel miserable, because he was wrong. And until that part of her felt like he understood that, she felt helpless to aid him.

Her green gaze watched him pull himself from the water. For a moment, her heart caught in her chest and fear overwhelmed her - was he coming to her, to right his wrong? Would it truly end, as she knew it could? But no, he brushed past her, and she could do nothing but listen to him gush his thoughts: Wh-What do you want me to say? Huh? Th-That ever since that day, I-I've been broken into two people?! That I hate you, but I want to come crawling back?! I don't know what I did, Phaedra! One minute, you were my pretty baby sister, and the next you were blaming me, hurting me! You can't make me choose between sisters! I love you both, for different reasons Her ears pinned back as he spoke. He was so wrong!. But before she could correct him, he was continuing again; You wrecked me, Phaedra. I don't know right from wrong anymore. All I feel anymore is this all encompassing agony. I hardly speak anymore. All I do is spar, to try and feel something again.

What was he even talking about? She listened as his voice took on different tones and fluctuations, as if he weren't really talking to her anymore. He had gone from anger, to self pity and sadness and then...he was speaking as if he had been taken over by something. His grief? What does he have to grieve over? She thought bitterly, allowing the darker of her emotional state to take over. Perhaps she did understand what he meant, only she would not lose herself in grief; her dark passenger was full of hate.

"Stop turning this around!" she shouted desperately to make his verbal tantrum end. She couldn't take hearing how much she had hurt him for one more second. He had hurt her!. That was what they were going to discuss. "I came to you, injured in the Steppe! Why did you say you were going to protect me if you couldn't?!" Her voice was loud, but not quite a shout. The accusation was unmistakable, but there was great sadness there as well. She had trusted him - "How do you think I felt, when I came to you, my big brother for comfort, and I see you cooing over the mare who's soap-opera boyfriend did this to me?!" Did he not understand the feeling of betrayal that he had shovelled onto her? By the way Leander had addressed the issue of Faelene when Phae had brought it up, she assumed it was under wraps, but if Faelene and Tolio were as close as Tolio seemed to think, how could he not know? "Did I not offer you and Faelene a home in the Grey, should you need it?! Did I not go to Leander that day to tell him about the Grey too?! All of this, I did for you, because that bitch meant so much to you!" Her dazzling eyes, usually so full of flirtatious laugher now brimmed with large crocodile tears that she refused to let fall. She turned her muzzle towards the sky, begging for gravity to pull the tears back into her eyes, and not down her cheeks. "I came to you! Not to her! And you…you just stood there! You let her insult me and cast me away. You call me your brother and yet you did nothing!" She emphasized each word with ice in her voice.

Then, with a haunting clarity, Faelene's words rang through her mind, You really are desperate for Tolio aren't you....How Faelene seemed to comprehend the emotional depth in the 5 words Phae had spoken, she didn't know. But the bigger question, was did Tolio? She might have told him how she truly felt about him, that day in the Steppe, had things not gone to devastatingly wrong…He let them, the dark part of her mind reminded her, pulling her away from the forgiving effect that her love for him, had on her emotions.

Feeding off of that darkness, she turned to face him, shaking slightly but unable to help herself. "You stood there, and let her cast me away. You let her. You've chosen your family, and made it quite clear where your loyalties lie. You are no brother of mine." Her voice had lost its volume at the end, and had levelled out quite sombrely. This time, she would not run leaving only a feather behind. No, this time she would stand tall and confident, more like his only sister Faelene, than she ever had been. Her slender form still trembled slightly, as if she were physically incapable of holding all of these emotions inside of her at once; yet her head remained high and defiant, even as tears poured down her cheeks.

I did my best, it wasn't much.
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah