Solace feels Kageru's anger before she sees it. The way her wife's body stiffens as footfalls approach, the change in her breathing as her antlered crown turns in the same direction, it lets her know that something is not quite right. Their consciousnesses were so often intertwined, she doesn't need to look know the way the beautiful warrior woman's eyes are glittering as Kensa begins to speak.
The blood-and-bone queen remains notably silent and Solace steps forward, pressing her muzzle to the distressed woman's for a moment as she takes a deep breath. When she does break contact with Hyaline's leader and her crystalline eyes lift to those of their visitor there is sadness there because she has too few words of comfort to give.
"I'm sorry Kensa," she replies, low and close, and the words cause her chest to tighten as she says them. She's sorry that Kensa has to feel the things she's feeling, alone at the helm of a massive kingdom. Sorry that Lie made this rash decision without consulting them, and sorry she can't break down the gates of a newly formed war kingdom to rescue him.
As she steps back, side to side with Kagerus again, this sadness in her eyes should be enough to let Kensa know that she isn't going to like what comes next. Solace wouldn't coat the truth in sugar. Kensa is hurting, she can see that, but they stand together as three woman rulers and she wouldn't belittle Hyaline's Primarch by offering false encouragement.
"Litotes attempted to make a prisoner of a king's adviser - for the maximum sentence." She treads gently at first, surely the young leader had known of her lover and co-rulers plans? "Not so long ago Kagerus and were prepared to go to war when another kingdom did the same to us."
It was just the sort of thing which was exhausting her, the sort of thing which had been constantly on her mind for the last eight years. She was trying to run a sanctuary, and it was impossible to stand behind Lie's offensive attack.
"And while anyone under the protection of this sanctuary who is attacked or stolen without cause will be defended and reclaimed. He is experiencing the consequences of his action, and to defend him now would be compromise everything we have stood for since Hyaline was first formed." She hopes that Kensa will understand on a logical level, even though she hardly expects her heart to do the same.
"But we can attempt a diplomatic approach if they will agree to speak with us. The East may not have much to offer them, but we will do what we can to help get him back without violence."
we are the ever-living ghost of what once was
