Duskfire Glacier dark skies that hung above

Then it was done.  He confirmed her words, perhaps not outright, but with a certainty that even she could not deny.  He would not return, and no amount of words on her part was going to change that.  She almost continued to argue... it was on the tip of her tongue.  Barbed words that would surely make things worse before better, yet words she ached to speak.  How could it possibly be better to never see him again than to have a son return, but without memories.  New could be made... but this way, the new was dead as well as the old.  Not only was her Queen aware that her son no longer knew her, but now she would be forced to accept that he never would.

The thought of bringing such news was almost enough to make her ill.

He might think her selfish, but she was convinced utterly that he was being so now.  At least she sought good other than her own.  He looked only to his own comfort, his own needs... and nothing he said would convince her his reluctance was anything short of cowardice.  For a moment, ice filled her.  Perhaps they were better this way, as her Queen would not need to see the ruin her son had become.  It was a harsh thought, and she would regret it moments later... but she was bereft.  Her entire being had been wrapped up in keeping him from harm, in serving his mother by serving him.  And now she not only had failed in that, but he would also ask that she choose.

The idea of being forever parted from the Rise was heartbreaking.  And though she might not have shown it, she felt it keenly.  Yet what choice did she have?  If she returned, even if her queen forgave her, she knew she would fall immeasurable in many of her sisters' eyes.  A warrior who could not even bring a wayward, male prince home.  They would not know his resolve, and instead would think her soft to have allowed him his own whim in remaining.  Perhaps it was true.  Perhaps she had softened.  But she knew that she could not force this, not if he was so convinced.  Obviously it was not meant to be.

Yet she could not bring herself to forsake the home of her heart so freely, not yet.  And she would need to return, if only to inform his mother of why he would not join her.  "I will think on it," was all she said, taught voice the only indicator to the turmoil that broiled just beneath the surface.  Were she to stay, true she would have him... but he remembered nothing.  An Amazonian Prince with no memories weighed against her home and sisters.  Though she would not say she wasn't fond of him despite their differences (a fact she would never admit aloud), were it not for duty, the choice would be obvious.