The truth spills out of her like air from the popping of a bloated balloon.
It doesn’t feel good, though.
It doesn’t feel like the release she’s craved after endless years of weighted traveling. Because even if it appears she’s been alone, she hasn’t. The heavy truth had been her always-companion, pressing its footsteps onto the soil alongside her and onto her conscious as well. She had tried ridding herself of it many times. She screamed the words into a sunset colored canyon that only echoed them back to her, mocked her. She whispered it in the hush of twilight like a prayer before sleeping, but she never felt absolved afterwards. The truth stuck to her like a burr, just as stubborn as she was, and made her restless.
Now, as it leaves her lips, she sees why it pulled her down so.
In the eyes of her brother, reality and truth collide and collapse under him. Everything he knew about their family was a lie, and here she is revealing it to him. Titanya wonders if he’s defined himself in some way by his parents – who he thought were his parents. She wonders if he’s found parts of himself in both Talulah and Tiphon: their faces, voices, and essences. Now, he never will be able to map out the other half. He’ll be lost at the blank space of his sire. Who was the half-burnt sabino stallion? What was he like? What strength (or weakness) built up his bones?
The sabino sees the loss written in the lines of Terran’s own face. A part of her wants to fling herself at him and wrap her dark neck around his own in comfort. But the other part of her (the part of her that binds the twins together, inexplicably, immortally) feels like she should stay her feet. There is an anger that is leagues wide like a chasm between them, and she is loath to fall in. Let him burn himself out on it. Let the truth sink in his gut like a stone until he too is comfortable with the weight of it.
She is uncharacteristically quiet as the heat simmers in the air between their bodies. Normally, it would fuel her. But the sudden fire in his eyes has her looking away in apology, the only one she’s capable of. His next question surprises her enough to draw her attention back to him. “Tiphon? No. No, I don’t think so.” Her voice is hesitant, unsure. If the angel knows, he’s never shown them any indication of it. If he doesn’t know…well, Titanya doesn’t want to be the bearer of news a second time. “Our father – our real father – was a great man. You should consider yourself lucky to find out he was Tiberios. Don’t be angry with me because I cared about mother enough to keep her secret. You would have done the same thing had she asked.”
There is a sudden noise in the forest. The two younger horses quickly reveal themselves to be the culprits of the crashing foliage. The mare doesn’t look their way at first. She’s too engrossed in the conversation that had been a long time coming, too fired up to want to back down now. “She always said I looked too much like him, Terran. It’s why she made me the bad guy, made me the one to carry her guilt. It’s why she loved you more than me.” Hot tears form in the corners of her amber eyes, but she shakes her head violently before they can do any more. Neither of them deserve this, to carry secrets, to lose a parent they never had in the first place – none of it is fair.
Titanya looks to Jinju and Ander in turn, forcing her face to soften a little. “Hey guys, I’m so glad to see you” she says, a weak smile playing on her lips. “I’ll stay if that one over there says I can.” She won't force her company on them and she won't beg. He knows she's too proud for anything other than a simple yes.
Titanya
I've got no roots,
but my home was never on the ground
@[Terran]@[Jinju] : I love this odd family <3