Arrow Lake clanging shields, companions tramping, bronze prows, men in bronze,

aure doesn't seem satisfied with the vague answer blodreina'd given her, because blodreina isn't one to gossip, least of all about her own life, and because given the tense situation between aure and verx it felt a bit tactless to talk about her and ingram ...even if they'd never cemented what they were ( if anything ) aside from the obvious co-parents. blodreina is quiet for a bit as they walk, though undoubtedly mulling over the questions, if only to offer it as a distraction for her friend. all things considered, ingram treated her very well, especially when she could've been a one night stand to him and nothing more ...but even as she thinks it, what she knows of him so far: that thought does him no justice. no. he was not the kind of man to hit it and quit it and she is both equally glad and feels a bit guilty about it despite that their intimacy had been wholly mutual.

...both. blodreina decides after a soft hum. maybe once blodreina meant something ...but it is just a name... the name of a natrona. i am no more a queen than i am a dragedan anymore. and maybe not everyone would see her as that way but she does not fool herself by thinking that there weren't others that definitely would. not that i was ever a queen. her mouth twists around the word almost as if it were an insult. they would see her as a traitor ...regardless of how sound her reason; and that was fine. blodreina was very unapologetic about her decisions — always had be and always would be. i am a ...ghost, trying to adapt to the belief that in order to belong anywhere i must first belong no where. and that was a lot harder than she'd ever thought it to be ( not that she ever thought she'd find herself leaving drageda ).

blodreina feels her brow furrow and her head turn sharply in aure's direction as she contemplates the pale sylph's next question, trying to decipher why the assumption that ingram even needed to grovel at her feet stirred something hot and angry beneath her breast. surely, aure meant nothing by it and yet that didn't seem to matter ( thanks pregnancy hormones ). he has no need to grovel ...and i wouldn't let him anyway. regardless of what we are or are not, him and i are equals. ( well, according to the diaspora ranks she's the one that should be groveling, kek ).