She didn't trust her memories of that day. They were hazy and unreliable, and when she told what she could tell of it out loud, she had realized they were nearly unbelievable. But she did remember Aodhan, and she did remember what Carnage had told her needed to be done.
Months had passed, or maybe it was a year, and she had tried to put that strange chapter behind her.
Tonight she grazes within sight of the waterfall. In the open grasslands that surround Tephra's landmark, the warm light of the volcano paints her coat a brilliant copper and the pale prongs of her antlers golden. Starsonder sleeps in a nest of grasses, the fireflies floating around her in a way that makes Warlight feel almost sentimental. She was a pretty little creature, strange but pretty, but Will struggled to feel the attachment to this one that she had felt for her last three children. The girl would always be Carnage's daughter, and she wasn't sure if it was her responsibility to get over that.
But her thoughts about such things are not allowed to wander as her skin begins to tingle and her ears fall flat into the dense mat of her mane. In the darkness, her almost-black eyes lack any hint of blue, inky mirrors that search they sky as something causes her to lift her head. It's almost tangible, the threads of their magic. She feels it more than sees the shimmer of it, tastes the bite of it in the air.
It hadn't been like that before the mountain.
When she finds a sea-bird gliding above her when all the others would be roosted, she doesn't doubt her suspicion. A wiser mare would let such a magician pass, but Warlight had always been more curious than wise.
She reaches with her new sense for the gull, testing the gift the dark god had given her, pulling at the threads and seeing if there is one that will unravel.
— soul as sweet as blood red jam —
![[Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/NMPHtrtV/Warlightpageddoll1.png)