[mature] I sold my soul for this ~Kagerus~

[Hestia]

"I am the least of the gods. Why would you trust me with this?"
"You're the last and most important of them all" I replied.

Kagerus comes, her presence easy to detect with the heavy beating of wings, and long shadow that hovers over the black hag, a blanket from the sun. Snow crunches as hooves softly pad to a landing. Her ears flatten to her skull at the hard words that fill the space between the two mares. She finishes her drink before raising her head. The mare already within the queen’s space. Hestia’s eyes narrow as she turns to look at the mare that a year ago had brought the demon into this world. Are you saying I’m not welcome in a kingdom that agreed to such terms?

It isn’t a snarl, but flat in its cadence it couldn’t be taken for anything less. For the situation itself she knows that she is not in the wrong, the issue of the demon is solely on Kagerus; but for Kagerus opening her mouth… that part is truly Hestia’s mistake. As angry as she might be over the other’s… insensitivity. She looks at the hard eyed female before her with a distain that she herself does not recognize. Out of all that could have known her, out of all that she kept at arm’s length, it just had to be this creature that would know every dark and painful bit of her soul. The flames wrap her body in a cocoon of warmth as she patiently waits for a response.

She can’t help but wonder what the girl’s explanation will be for the actions she’d taken after Hestia left with the demon spawn. Her biggest argument? If Kagerus was truly that afraid of it, then why did she allow it to leave with Hestia to begin with. Would it not have been better for it to have remained at Kagerus’s side if she could not fully trust Hestia with it’s care? Even so how could Kagerus truly be angry with Hestia herself? She’d been there, seen it all, watched as the queen was raped and taken from the known worlds they’d traversed through her dream. She had to know that an incident so personal was not something to share with the public. For a time, they had been one, they could feel all the other felt, and as grating as that had been it was not the part that she was fearful of.

If others knew that she was raped, that she had allowed the rapist to remain at her side… what would it do? Not only to her reputation, but to the trust of her kingdom? The believed in her, her strength set her apart from them. For her to have this shame, for them to know why it had happened… It could crush Nerine. She would look weak, emotional, damaged. The people in her kingdom would frown on her inability to let go of her children, they would snub their noses that she’d been unable to fight off a dream. That a dream had consumed her whole and spit her out a skeleton of who’d she’d been before. Other kingdoms would come, and destroy all that she’d worked to build.

Kagerus had to know, and for her to ignore what she knew, it was pure insensitivity. She feels tired, so tired. So easy it would be to burn herself to ashes, yet that would solve nothing, she would just come back stronger, and besides there is the possibility of it destroying the life that currently grows in her womb. The only light in her life in these times of darkness. A truly wonderful thing for her, she deserves a break, deserves to know joy once more.

HESTIA

@[Kagerus]