YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS
Her lips press together in a thin line as she considers Gale.
She wants to question him again. And like she has done with so many others, Aela wants to know where his weakest points lie. But to do that means to return to Hyaline and the palomino doesn't mean to that without an offering and some kind of protection to ward her half-sibling away from her powers.
A Magician would be helpful. Pangea had them growing once like the weeds that grew in Tephra now. But Eight hasn't been sighted in ages and she doesn't know enough about the mentor that had once taught Beyza. (Her pale friend, though, does come to mind. Perhaps she was overdue for a trip to the place she would always consider her home.) She wonders if Reave might see something advantageous that might work in their favor - a location, a moment that might act as the catalyst for others - but that would require more knowledge.
(And she certainly can't blame her brother for not wanting to meet with Gale yet. Not until they had some kind of leverage.)
Where Reave wonders if she isn't dreaming big enough, Aela offers him a few glimpses into her mind. Lets him see the web that she is spinning.
"I have a feeling that he's rather special to the Loessian queen," Aela reveals with another flourishing smile. Ledger was preferable because the golden brute was drowning in emotion. She didn't think it would take much to break him. The grief was already there, threatening to drown him. All he needed was a good shove. Loess hadn't done much when one of their own had been stolen by Pangea, Aela remembered. The silver pegasus had done his year in captivity without so much as an emissary to see how he fared.
If they brought him to Nerine or the Pampas, the worst that could happen was that Loess would do nothing.
"But he could be an influential bargaining point, if we were to decide something against Tephra or Hyaline."
Or, perhaps, both.
@Reave
