Aela continues to watch Mazikeen sharply, finding herself somewhat surprised that the horned mare agreed so readily with her. Over the last few days, there had been several conversations about her family - with Cheri, with Obscene - and it had left a sour taste in her mouth. The golden mare has always made her own way in the world, striving to make her own mark, and it's become increasingly frustrating to do that when all she hears is the mention of her brothers.
"Fortunately, I'm a lighter shade than they are." Aela points out. (Prettier, as well, but Mazikeen has eyes to see that for herself.) The two brothers in Taiga were very similar to her, and she had come to learn why: they are her only full siblings, whereas the rest were half. But despite the long list of relations, the Pampas' Seneschal has only claimed one and that had been the brother they had spoken of in the very beginning of their conversation.
Reave was the only blood relative that mattered to Aela, the only one that had bothered to acknowledge her (apart from Heartfire).
She had never known her father. None of her other siblings had ever bothered to meet her. And her mother had given her away to the first nurse mare she could find.
(The Taigan's seem to love their claim of kinship and family, but Aela has never found anything worth claiming from the Northern clan.)
Her mind was turning, trying to think of how this mare would be so familiar with her brothers. A friend of the family? She can glimpse fractured memories from Mazikeen, but no one image above the other tells her anything. And what she finds especially odd, Aela can sense no strong emotions attached to the memories. No longing, no hatred, no sorrow. Just a lightning strike emotion, fleeting like the quiksilver shade of Mazikeen's eyes...
"Gale is quite unusual," Aela says, wondering what this female's connection to her blue-brindled sibling might be. Another attempt to search her mind yields nothing, just patches of Hyaline forest and the overwhelming scent of blood, followed by the slight sensation of an oncoming headache. Intrigued, Aela asks with an arched brow: "Are you... a particular friend of his?"
They doused your soul in water,
but the flames raged higher.
And they called you devil's daughter,
such a pretty liar.
@Mazikeen