Her ears fly into the fine cornsilk of her mane, as if she would banish the words her grandmother had spoken. Aela thinks again: she is not an ant. She is herself and Aela knows she is meant for great things. What greatness can an insect aspire to?
There is a long period of silence (as if Heartfire knows that one as strong-willed as Aela needs time to come to her own decisions) before one ear flicks forward and then the second, as the near-palomino catches a glimpse of Nerine through those knowing eyes. A single insect was only capable of being squashed, but a colony? A hive? A collective group of powers stands a better chance of surviving the perilous and turbulent times that Beqanna was known for. In the coming days after Straia's fall, Aela will come to realize the eerie premonition in this piece of advice.
She will come to wonder what might have happened if Straia had made the undertaking of changing Pangea into a collaborative effort. If their loyalty could have been bound to the ideals that the former Chamber queen had been attempting to achieve. Those events will spin a web of thoughts across Aela's young mind. Alone, she is one thing. But to be apart of something else? (And her mind is already thinking of Skandar, who takes her memories and gives them flesh. Her mind is already thinking of ways to build upon that, of others who would help create something more.)
The emotion that rings down the bond is a determined one. "I will be," she tells her grandmother, still unaware of how to make that a dream reality. But Aela has sensed the power emanating from the black-and-white Seer and the golden girl has always tried to create that within herself. It had been Heartfire who had first made her think that was destined to be something great, that she might follow the hoofsteps of her granddam to make a name for herself. She might never be a Seer as her grandmother is but as @[Heartfire] showed her, power not only stems from the Magic (that seems to flow from everywhere and everyone) but in the ability to have the patience in understanding that timing is everything. To learn the risks, to understand the calculations. To wait.
Patience, as her grandmother had so kindly reminded her. So this is what Aela schools herself with: patience.
Their conversation flows to other things. It moves towards family and this does pique the girl's interest. She knows little about the other branches that might claim kinship with the former Nerinian queen. Her delicate ears prick and curiosity radiates through the striped filly, wondering if her grandmother might elaborate on the shadowy limbs of their family tree. There is another silence and then breaking through the void comes a startling revelation. "Leaving?" Aela thinks, so surprised in the thought that she almost makes an actual noise. A sound like anguish that she swallows down.
"Who?" she asks, not wanting to make a demand but the word comes fierce and strong and blazing. But then another (milder) thought follows through the silence: "how?"