It is inevitable that change will happen. And in the time she had taken her leave of Beqanna, much had changed throughout the kingdoms. Indeed, much had changed within her own family. And, well, as absentee a parent as she had been, she has much to make up for. Starting with her grandson.

She would be lying if she said she were not proud of him. He had accomplished a great deal in his short life. She might play a long game, but it appears he does not. And there is certainly something to be said for that. But while his father’s star and burned bright and fast, she could only hope that his would not.

The wrenching heartbreak she had felt upon learning of her son’s death is not something she cares to repeat any time soon. It had also sparked a realization that she could not continue to ignore her family as she had been. She could not stomach the thought of never knowing them as more than distant visions.

And so, she makes the journey from Nerine to Loess, purpose in her easy stride. Winter has settled its icy grip into the land, coating the land in a layer of snow and ice. Chill sea winds often buffet the shores of Nerine, so Heartfire had quickly grown accustomed to the cold. Her mottled blue and white coat had grown thick, concealing the lean strength of her slender frame. Her dark locks fall errantly across her neck and forehead, contrasting sharply with the vibrant sharpness of her blue eyes.

Despite the hindrance of the snow, she soon finds herself on the border of Loess. Slowing to a halt, she glances around curiously at what she can see of the mercenary kingdom. After a moment, she reaches with her sight, finding who she needs easily enough (he is her grandson, after all. And she would certainly not be who she is if she hadn’t kept an eye on him). A simple tweak, a brief vision of his kingdom’s borders is enough to send the message she needs. His curiosity and surprise would no doubt do the rest.

i see your sins
and i want to set them free

Dangerous she might be, but never to those she considers her own. Though her grandson might not know her as he should, she would never pose any threat to him. Of course, upon first glance, one would hardly assume she could be a threat to anyone. She is a very unassuming figure. Lovely enough, but no great beauty. No spectacular colors or unique features. Simply, a mare. Plain and blue and altogether boring.

In many respects, the perfect weapon.

She watches him, from the moment she had sent her less than subtle message. She sees him nearly crash into the pillar. The confusion and curiosity, the internal debate. But she has seen enough of Wolfbane to know that he will come if for no other reason than curiosity. And that he would likely come alone. Not that that mattered particularly.

In hindsight, perhaps she should not have left. Perhaps Wolfbane would have known her as more than simply a name. A body that had brought his father into the world. She might know him, but he knows nothing of her. Knows nothing of what Longclaw (of what his children) mean to her.

In short order, he arrives, question upon his lips. Her blue eyes settle upon him, curiosity and faint affection in her gaze. “It was,” she replies mildly, shifting comfortable from her settled position. “I thought it time we finally met, Wolfbane.”

i see your sins
and i want to set them free

There are no doubt any number of horses out there that find it exceedingly uncomfortable to know that she is often watching them. Most never learn of it, of course. But for those that do, it’s generally safe to say she has a somewhat unnerving quality about her that seems to unsettle them in one way or another.

No matter, she’s quite used to. Indeed, she’s come to depend on it in some respects. There is far more power in perception than many realize. Indeed, often more so than any brute power that she might bring to bear.

His wry quip brings a faintly amused smile to her lips, just the slightest of quirks. “Rarely,” she banters drolly as he settles into the conversation. Indeed, she has almost never had her summons ignored. And if they ever had been, she could almost guarantee it wouldn’t happen a second time. Knowledge is power, after all.

Of course, with her, something is always afoot. He would be quite right in his assumptions. While she might recognize how much she and Wolfbane could help each other in the future, today she is here for surprisingly honest reasons. Simply, she would just like to know him. It’s not often her motives are so pure. Indeed, the next time he saw her, they likely wouldn’t be.

Her smile deepens slightly at his final question, and she tilts her head faintly in response. “Frankly,” she begins a bit dryly, “I wanted to see what you had made of yourself. After all, you wouldn’t exist were it not for me, would you grandson?”

i see your sins
and i want to set them free

Of course, she hadn’t been in his life as a child. It’s something she would always regret, though it couldn’t be helped. When she’d left, Longclaw had been young. Healthy and wild and willful, and she had not worried overly much that her parting might affect him. And she’d been too far away to know he’d had children. Far reaching she might be, but even her vast sight has its limits. Regrettably, proximity is one of them. He might believe her simply another opportunist (and make no doubt, she is an opportunist), but in this case, she is merely making up for lost time.

At his accusation, she offers a faint shrug of her shoulders. She had already peeked, of course. But she didn’t have any desire to gain his enmity. He doesn’t know her yet, and a stranger having intimate details of his life readily to hand would no doubt cause him to throw up endless walls.

But he doesn’t particularly seem to care much about an answer anyway. Instead he barrels onwards, accusations springing freely to his lips. It’s to be expected, given her unorthodox approach, but nevertheless, the spiteful, accusatory words arrow straight to her heart. She stills when they fall harshly from his lips, the warmth in her features chilling to icy indifference. Her only defense mechanism, the one she uses so readily.

But she is far from indifferent. Far from heartless, as she has so often been accused. Few ever realize how wildly the emotions beat in her breast, how much she works to keep them contained. Her self-awareness is often mistaken for conceit (though, to be sure, there is plenty of that), but without it, she could so easily destroy not only what she loathes, but what she loves too. Sometimes though, they seem almost impossible to contain. Times like now.

It takes her a moment to realize the edges of ferns and scraggly brush that are scattered about them have begun to disintegrate. It isn’t until the faint hissing of dust hitting the earth reaches her ears that she realizes her carefully contained grief had begun to spill over into her own destructiveness. It stops abruptly, reined in by an iron will.

“I know exactly what he was made of,” she responds with deceptive gentleness. Wolfbane might never know of her true grief, but at the very least, he would know she cared. “And what happened has not gone unnoticed.” She knows, and she would respond. But she plays a very long game.

i see your sins
and i want to set them free

His anger is justified, and even she would be hard-pressed to deny it. But she is also equally stubborn, and she will not let her family drift farther apart than they already have. He is not the only one she has lost time to make up for.

She matches his hard stare with her own steady gaze, but a part of her thrills when his expression shifts from blame to acceptance. Wolfbane is a piece of her son, still living, and no matter what face she wore, it would always eat at her to know that he could not accept her despite her many failings. It is a relief to know she will not have to add that to her growing list.

But then his words turn to nostalgia, and the unacknowledged grief tugs at her heart. Her features soften slightly as he reminisces on his father. Her throat tightens, but still she continues, her voice soft, not her usual bold tone. “I know he was.” She pauses for a moment then. Gathering herself, though her features and tone remain unchanged. “He was an amazing man.”

Perhaps she views her son through a mother’s eyes, but she knows the truth of her words, no matter how short his life had been. She stills when he continues however, offering more. Offering insight into the days before his death. After a lengthy silence, she simply queries, “Warnings?”

It is something she might normally have asked, a method to avoid revealing everything she knows. But now her ignorance is unfeigned. The thought of peering into her son’s last days leaves dread curling in her gut, and so she has avoided it. She had seen his death, and she refused relive the violence her reaction in that awful moment. But now, she knows her own ignorance cannot stand. Perhaps Wolfbane could tell her some, but no doubt she will need to bite the bullet sooner rather than later.

i see your sins
and i want to set them free