Mazikeen really should stop trying to predict how conversations were going to go because she has never once gotten it right. She feels the light-hearted exchange she had been imagining crumble away into reality as the sombre colt explains what living in Hyaline has been like for him.
She thinks about how she should have known.
And maybe she should have also thought to tell him it had been her intention to fight for that rule to be changed. Would that have saved him some anxiety? If he had known there was one shifter out there intent on deterring anyone else from chasing him out?
‘Should have’s pile up in her mind as the warmth and faint smile falls from Mazikeen’s eyes. She regards him more seriously, finding her heart aching for him not feeling welcome in the land he had (presumably) been born in. “I’m sorry, Selaphiel.” She was often sorry but rarely took the chance to actually say it and she does so now without hesitation. “It took me too long to see that that rule was an unjust one.”
“Breach…” Mazikeen’s voice falters. She softens the news, not for the colt but for herself. Far better (and easier) to think of her friend as being away and not dead. “... I’m looking after Hyaline while she’s gone and that’s the one thing I’m changing. You can stay here, you and any other children that are born here or come to live here, for as long as you want regardless of whether you can shift or not. Forever, even, if you’d like.” She watches him carefully for his reaction, trying to not focus too much on the stupid feeling of hope that stirs in her. She'd like for Selaphiel to find this as his home, like to try to give him some peace and make up for the miserable time he's been having. If it isn't too late.
@[Selaphiel]