Moonsong Glacier lamenting

For now. It offered a thin string of hope for more, and it made her pivot a bit more towards him. She chanced a longer look, but largely, for the sake of her neutrality, she avoided some of his features. The time at the cliffs felt like so painfully long ago and thankfully, she did not seem to barb anything sensitive with mentioning Kiwi. She knew she had been a different beast then, and as presumptuous as it felt to think, the same might've went for him too. He was not as hale as he had been--unless memory was playing its tricks.

Then, Opalia nodded. He didn't want the Moonspearian queen to know. His vagueness was difficult to sort, but it was something. Naturally, she wondered what the terms of his departure were; he was not aggressive to her, scented of the mountain, but neither did she wave their banner loudly unprompted. Alright, she answered finally, her tongue wanting to twist into the comfort of their trigedasleng--testament to the nerves she was keeping tied very carefully. It may be only a matter of time before she finds you, though. If you intend to stay here, she offered quietly, toying with how unwelcome she felt in what could be a fledgling claim. Do you call it anything yet? she asked, glancing at the lakeside first then the lands reaching out from here. A strange place, odd company, but not without its chilly lure the longer she looked. But Moonspear loomed. She knew that Hydra's reach was vast and that this was relatively near, and in the open, no less. So how bad was their blood?

Nevertheless, he answered her before she would need to ask and revealed that he was brother to the mountain family. It explained some matters, like why they had sheltered him, but made others just as perplexing. I'm Opalia, she returned, almost sighing it. It shouldn't mean much to him. From Drageda, originally, but it is no more. My brother died on the mountain--fever, in the end, after a dark enemy's teeth. For the queen's son, she said with a hollowed look on. It is why.. Why she was willing to fight for them, round their borderlands, and why she stayed when nothing else was there some nights besides just her. The cliffs were a distant memory, her family dead or gone from her side, and hidden in the folds of their security, she could almost pretend it was something that felt right. ..I am theirs. For that temptation of revenge that was closest when she was with Hydra and her family, and that was what she lived for.

Turns out, like last time, their meeting was destined to be brief. Opalia carried on eventually, staying long enough to hear what he'd give..