the firestarters always get the burns
and the good guys never get the girl
Ilma feels like she’s running out of time, and frankly, she needs to calm herself down. She can keep it brief without being too hasty.
”Castile just asked me to tell his heir that she is Queen whenever he falters at keeping his dragon-self at bay. You’re to be her Cleric as you are to him now, he said. But there’s a complication on the horizon that I could not tell him in his current state.”
She tries to stay calm, and yet, she can't help but glance to the Mountain and the kingdom she knows to lie just south of it, though she recollects herself quickly. ”She’ll not be back in time. I’ll go to her to support her as much as I can, jist as I promised her, but I’m not sure if I can make it - or if I’ll get the chance to tell her anything. That’s why I come to you.” Despite their earlier differences, the one thing Ilma can trust the dun with, is the well-being of Loess.
”When he leaves without saying a word, please continue his reign as Queen-Regent until she makes it back home. Alcinder will need you, too.”
There is a matter-of-factness about Ilma when she tells Lepis what she knows, but with the concern for the mare and child etched too deeply into her face not to be noticed.
”I’ll do what I can for them, Lepis. But I am only one, and not in a position of power at that, either.” There is a shake of her head as she says it. But she can attempt to distract the monsters from hurting her friend, and distract them from catching up to her son when he will attempt his escape. That’s what she can do - that and ask another to be on the lookout for them.
@[Lepis]
Goodbye, before I die