It is nice, to hear a voice where there was none, and Sloene memorizes the way that the dark mare’s voice sounds, the cadence and the timbre of the words. She speaks first of the fae, and the little grulla mare tilts her head and gazes at Aranea with open curiosity, though she says nothing. Unlike the gifted who were called to the Mountain to have their powers stripped, and then returned to reclaim them, Sloene believes herself completely normal, and she has never had reason to set even a single hoof on the mountain. Still, she is curious about the whole process in an academic way, and adds it to the list of things she will ask someone, someday.
But more immediately of concern, is that Aranea went on, and the next statement is one she feels like she should answer. “You seemed trustworthy, and you haven’t let me down yet,” she replies, and if her smile is slightly bewildered, who can blame her? There have been few people in her life, before now, that were worthy of her trust. Her foster-mothers, she has painfully come to realize, might have loved the orphans they gathered to their little herd in their own way, but mostly they had wanted to gain something through having the children they raised scatter to all of the Kingdoms and become powerful. “It is I who should thank you, for bringing me here. I didn’t realize it was possible, to love a place, before.”
Aranea speaks of serving Tephra, of doing what she can for it, and this is where Sloene is still lost. Nera and Branka had equipped her with many skills, some of which had served her well in communicating with Aranea and choosing Tephra, but she does not actually think that the rest of her skill set will be particularly useful to Magnus and Aranea. After all, it had been a different world when she was a child, and Sloene had been raised essentially to be a spy. To listen, and learn, and blend into any environment. That doesn’t seem right, here in this peaceful place Aranea has brought her. “I would like to serve Tephra as well,” she says quietly, “but I don’t really know how.”