So much has happened, that she had nearly forgotten that her father had wanted someone – Brennen, he had said – to heal her. Of course, he had gotten angry and punished her over something ridiculous in the same conversation. A surefire way to drive her away from Nerine and straight into the arms of Rhaegor, was to try and forbid her from seeing him. She had listened to her father’s apology, but his reasoning for feeling the way that he did still left a sour taste in her mouth. The risk of getting your heart broken was something everyone took when they fell in love; it was a risk that she had always been willing to take. She isn’t sure why he can’t see that – Breckin had taken the same risk with him.

The effects of the plague have become so deeply rooted into her that it was all she knew, now. Her nights were spent being wracked by her awful cough, and her golden muzzle seemed to be permanently stained with blood. The warmth of Tephra was a welcome change, however; since the fever was always present, she at least no longer suffered from being too cold by the frigid coastal winds of Nerine. Every night curled next to her winged prince was her only real source of comfort.

She is alone, now, walking the coastline of Tephra, when she feels a strange call – not really a thought, but more like an urge, that she needed to go back towards the river that ran through the center of the kingdom. She pauses for a moment, a slight frown creasing her brow, but she decides she has nothing to lose, and so she turns, heading back the way that she had just come.

Walking along the bank of the river, she follows it inland, and it isn’t long until her eyes settle on an unfamiliar stallion. And because she rarely met anything or anyone with caution, he is no different. With an amicable smile on her lips, she approaches him, greeting him easily as she gets close enough, ”Hi, there.” Her gold-blazed face lowers just slightly, her fever-glossed eyes meeting his with a fleeting flicker of curiosity when she offers, ”I’m Chryseis. I’m not really a member here, I guess, but I could get Magnus if you need him…?” Her voice trails off, her head tilting as though to punctuate her query, having no way of knowing that he was, in fact, here for her.

She is hesitant to claim Tephra as her permanent home because nothing else has ever worked out for her. Every time she began to settle somewhere, something happened to drive her away. In Hyaline, she had been too young to handle the aftermath of what had happened at the party, and recently in Nerine, it was everything with her father. It seemed easier to come into this with no expectations. Even though she never wanted to leave Rhaegor, she was not completely against the idea that they might someday find themselves living somewhere else. They both had an inclination for being unpredictable.

Still, she is content for now, and it was nice to truly felt like she had freedom. She was away from both of her parents, and the only one she had to worry about was Rhaegor – which was incredibly easy, since she adored him, and he seemed to just understand her.

That is why when Brennen mentions her father, there is an almost visible flinch. She hasn’t spoken to him since she left, and it had not been on the best of terms. He didn’t seem to understand her, at all. There was a part of her that wondered if he even cared if she was healed anymore. ”I remember him mentioning you,” she recalls their family gathering, then, and adds with a delighted chirp, ”Oh! And you’re Blue’s dad.” She of course has no way to of knowing Brennen and her grandmother’s relationship was in a delicate place right now, and it shows in the innocent way she still stares at him after she brings up their daughter.

He offers to attempt healing her, and she smiles up at him with lips that are still stained by the blood that drips from her nose. ”I don’t mind if you try. I’ve never seen real magic before.” The way that her eyes spark despite their fevered glassiness is a reminder that she is still, in fact, the same young girl that has always been so fancied by the magic that Beqanna had to offer, with the same curiosity that has yet to dull even as she reached adulthood.