Perhaps this understanding had started with her grandmother. Heartfire could have ravaged Beqanna. With her powers and her vast knowledge, her grandmother could have brought another Reckoning across the Land of the Sunrise.
But she hadn't; Heartfire had left in search of a man who disappeared. A man called Dovev and apart from his brilliantly red coat, a man who her half-brother Reave strongly resembled. Aela knows that her granddam already had her infamy - from the craters left behind on the Isle, from her reign in Nerine, through her descendants (and to her favorite one, the bold and beautiful Aela). As she had gotten older, though, the other side of Aela's blood had begun to emerge.
Through her increased interactions with Reave (and therefore few encounters with Nashua and Yanhua), Aela had learned of Aletta. Another grandmother, one who had been a Queen to a land supposedly older than this one. And she had sacrificed that throne in search of her beloved, throwing away power and prestige for a man. And if she wanted to look closer, there was always the story of her parents. (There was even a memory here in the Pampas, where her handsomely-masked father asked her mother: 'How you find Taiga?' and the lovely chestnut had answered 'Taiga suits me just fine.' clearly not meaning the Redwoods at all.) Perhaps not unique, but Lilliana had loved Wolfbane, and he had made sure that she suffered for it in almost every way.
All Aela knows of love is that it is sacrifice.
And she dreams of tearing down worlds to rebuild them. She dreams of testing the lines and limits of Magic so they might redraw them. She aspires to create as the Gods do - and perhaps one day become a Goddess herself. Obscene has never held her back, but nobody has offered Aela more than what she has dreamt for herself.
"You've been useful," is what she tells him, as close to a compliment that Aela can come. They've helped each other and she doesn't understand why he feels their arrangement no longer feels adequate. (Aela can guess, but she had always thought that Obscene might be like her. That feelings were easy to overlook in the face of a greater aspiration.)
Her brow furrows slightly, as she tilts her refined head towards the Prince.
Of course, it had always been her choice. But hadn't it been his as well?
But once it's made... Obscene trails off, and Aela wants to tell him that he isn't seeing the broader picture. There are so many bigger things at play here - and they can continue to be useful to each other - but all he can see is a love that Aela may not give to anyone. He might smile as if none of this bothers him, but she feels the splintering within him inside herself as well. What emotions he is grappling with are strong enough to afflict the Empath as well and the slender palomino continues to move away from him, out of his sphere of pain so that she can settle her own senses.
"Let's go, then." and Aela continues to step out from underneath him, moving towards Tephra instead.
Never bothering to look back.
They doused your soul in water,
but the flames raged higher.
And they called you devil's daughter,
such a pretty liar.
@Obscene