[private] you must learn to join the dance

[lilliana]

Lilliana had carefully planned out this conversation.

(Part of her had thought about apologizing for the fight, but that stubborn part in the chestnut mare - that stone-like resolution passed from mother-to-daughter was set. Part of her still wants to apologize but another reminds Lilli that not everything is her fault; that if she is ever going to move forward, she needs to stop placing every misstep solely on her slender shoulders. There are simply some things beyond her control.)

But Leilan grins at her and the conversation drifts away from politics and Lilliana laughs.

All it takes is a wayward smile from a handsome man and she drifts off her course.

At the mention of their son, she softens. "I hope that he is himself." She finally says to the Freyr in a quiet voice. The copper mare has seen glimpses of herself in Oren but there are pieces of Leilan as well; a reflection of his father's kindness. When she glances towards the draconic stallion, her fondness for him warms the deep blue of her eyes.

The expression only stills when he says that Borderline should rule alongside Yanhua and a ghost haunts Lilliana; she remembers someone who had told her once that politics and marriages never mix well. Then her mind slips back further, remembering the way that her parents split the responsibilities between them and then it eventually forced them apart. "There is Amarine as well," Lilliana finally says, coming back to the present. Why stop at two? Why not three? "I still have hope for a Taigan council. But when Yanhua's time comes, he might have other ideas."

And change, she reminds herself, is an integral part of life. Maybe whatever changes Yanhua will bring might help bring back more light to this forest.

When the silver bay mentions her other son, her gaze sharpens on him. It wouldn't be a surprise to have Leilan name Nashua as his heir; it would be just as shocking as Lilliana naming Yanhua as hers. But her thoughts trail after his and much like the dragon stallion, she wonders if they could be counterweights. (And it sounds like one of her mother's stories, a pair of brothers ascending through the darkness surrounding their birth to rise towards something higher. That they perhaps might bring the North into a brighter era.)

She gives the Freyr a slight nod with her mind already traveling to a few years from now. The sun is shining again. The North thrives. Nobody dares to burn the Taigan forest or blast Nerinian stone. The Curse is dead and truly gone.

It's a bright future that she allows herself to hope for.

Smiling at the thought, Lilliana tilts her head towards Leilan's towering form. He doesn't think that their world is ever done ending and she decides that they forget the apocalypse surrounding them entirely. "@[Leilan]," she teases. "When was the last time you had a good run?" The chestnut spends most of her nights on the Taigan shore, racing the tides and glad that the evidence is washed away before anyone else might find it. It shows though, in the lean curves of her muscle. "I'd challenge you to a race," she drawls out as they continue walking, "but I wouldn't want to tire your old bones out."