it's easy when she's keeping busy. things are fine, after all. she's got her mate and she's got her kru and they are, somehow, continuing forward. ajatar will be heda, and ajatar is fine, blix realized a while ago that one day she'd have to follow ajatar as heda. 

but then she remembers that nomi died before blix could tell her about mallaidh, and that ajatar, for all that she is admirable, is not nomi, and eastwood and artaax have both just -- vanished -- and things are less fine.

these are things she cannot share with her pack. she's never been as good at compartmentalizing as her brother (who, she believes doggedly, will be back. when he's .. processed.) so she keeps busy, and everything is fine. verx's call summons her from patrol, not too far off from the cheka. she makes her way toward the lake until she sees him, and straightens up -- in the wake of nomi's death, she's been trying to adopt a more formal style of leadership, as if to fill the space left by nomi's austere presence. "what is it?" she asks, taking a seat near by.

verx's question surprises her, though maybe, in retrospect, it shouldn't -- but she hadn't really been thinking about the dynamic shift in drageda's loss of heda. her old childish fantasy comes back to her, just for a moment (her and mallaidh, of course, as it was always meant to be). no, that wouldn't be a good idea at all -- and honestly, the only other wolf blix would consider for the job is helix, who's in trigeda now. swallowing to cover the twinge of sorrow that thought brings, blix nods. 

"i don't have anyone else in mind," she tells him, offering a wry smile. "i'm happy to have you as cheka -- as long as you also want to keep the title." after all, she's no antumbra, let alone heda. her and vercingetorix barely know each other -- something that will have to change, actually, if they are gonna keep working together.

blix flashes a grin -- not that she'd expected him to object, but still. she's not arrogant enough to think she doesn't need help with keeping on top of everything, and vercingetorix is capable, and honestly, likeable. sometimes he reminds her how bobby was when he was a kid -- she likes that playfulness, especially when it comes with a good work ethic. 

at his question, she shakes her head, and then pauses. "well," she says, becoming visibly flustered. in everything that happened, she never had a chance to tell anyone about -- "mallaidh and i are, uh, are mates now," blix says, somewhere between sheepish and proud. "since -- when i was a kid, wildfire was kidnapped, and ajatar suggested it might be because of heda's status, so -- not that i'm anywhere near heda's status but we have enemies here, so. probably.. good to know, just in case." pause. "i mean, not that mallaidh can't defend herself, either," she adds, voice taking on a decidedly more sentimental tone as she thinks of her very capable wife.