With spring well settled in Beqanna, life seems to settle in a known rhythm slowly as well. The tumults of leaderships changing and positions being reclaimed can't bother her as long as they don't threaten her - in the case of Loess and Sylva, that honestly is just something she still needs to figure out. Or maybe have someone else figure out. Like Solace. Or Wolfbane himself. They still owe Hyaline now, although not for the best reasons. But perhaps something can be worked out. If not, at least they've made sure that they know Hyaline is not that easily messed with, she figures. But she'll retreat. It's worse enough that this situation existed in the first place.

No, there's other matters that concern her today. They end up being a missing stallion and his weird behaviour upon returning, and that's an understatement. And the fact that she hasn't visited many allies for a time - but she knows Breckin (formerly her friend in an equal position to hers, now queen) needs time to settle in, and that Ischia doesn't need her prodding about if there's nothing to talk about really. Tephra... she just hopes the new diplomats are doing well. She'd been tempted to follow them, but in the end decided to put a little faith in them. They were both adults.

Now, she's staring at the river's water, watching it bubble as it passes by, lively. Trying to empty her head and failing at it. Wondering what she should do, next. Or if she should just lay back and wait.

And when all else fails - there is a Loessian coming her way. It’s the scaly-toothy male she met once before in the forest; near autumn, she’d chastised herself for going there alone, thinking what had happened last time that had resulted in Llowell - but Vulgaris hadn’t made such a move, and she was less fearful of him now, knowing he had thought that she was afraid he would eat her. It seemed silly in retrospect, but at least she would never forget the meeting.

Today he moved precariously and warned her with a whinny, and she smiles at the river water before turning to face him. The grey scaled stallion was looking at the river as if something might be in there, and she chuckled a bit at his question. ”Only for problems to solve themselves. Your new kingdom has brought me quite a number of those, as of late.” She shakes her crest, helping her mane realign. Well. New might not entirely be the word since he carries the smell on him so obviously.

”That would be... quite a long story I fear.” Almost being stolen. Stealing in return. Having to follow Lepis around because she was one such an irritating child that could not accept that she lost the game. Needing to grit her teeth, like a lot, waiting for a deal to be made and then finally releasing the perlino piece of annoyance on the condition that Loess would owe them big time. And now just waiting on a proposal that did not seem to come. Oh yeah and good thing Bane had returned the child, or he would have had much bigger troubles. Not even to mention Svedka returning and behaving like, ten times the idiot he had always been.

Such a great half year.

”How about you? You seem happy.” She cocked her head at him. He really was, wasn’t he? There was something lightfooted about him today, and his smile was genuine. Something good must have happened then.

Ilma doesn’t open up in the way he’d hoped, maybe that is so. Her wannabe-friend is not the real problem however; she doesn’t know where to begin. All these things are such a tangled mess in her head that she can’t find what she’s looking for, and she can’t ask of him to help unwind it. And maybe there’s the thing that, if he’s loyal to his kingdom, if she told him all that plagues her mind, he should tell Wolfbane like a good citizen - and she’d rather get a feel of the striped king herself than be talked about. She doesn’t know what Lepis might have said, but it can’t be good. She wonders what Bane thinks of all this.

But not through Vulgaris.

Her question however, hits bullseye, and suddenly a small laugh breaks from her lips as he gets fired away. He’s found a love then, and had a child, a daughter to help him see the light in the world. He can’t stop talking, it seems, and she watches amusedly how he struggles not to overwhelm her white self with the beauty of his baby, and finally focuses on his wife, girlfriend, whatever she officially or unofficially may be. ”They sound wonderful. I hope we can visit one another in our homes again, soon.”

She grins at his joke on himself, and shakes her head. ”I know they say opposites attract,” she offers more seriously, ”But I think you’re cutting yourself short just a little.” After all, even if Leli being everything he was not should be a reason for Ilma to like her - she liked Vulgaris, too. She knew he tried. For that, he gets points too, in Ilma’s book.

And probably in Leliana’s too, judging from what he says about her.

Politics should never get in the way of friendships, and neither should teeth. Yet they seem to have had that rough start because of both, and she has let it. But new opportunities arise, and when he smiles in regard to her invitation to visit, she assumes he will, in his own time,

The winged mare doesn’t really mind his joke on himself being secretly serious, though. It’s what she always liked so much about Hyaline, too. To not judge the past. To see what one can become, if set on the right path. To help those who wander - figuratively as well as literally - to find a home, or find a way.

Vulgaris had done that without her help, and yet, he still seems to lose himself sometimes, like now. She shakes her head. ”I’m sure your family would agree with me instead of you, this time.” she grins, ”You could bring them over with you for a visit if you want. Or, I suppose when things have settled I should talk to your leader sometime, and I can meet you there,” she says,

Honestly, she had contemplated friendly-stealing him, right after Lepis had run away with Valdis. But she’d reconsidered because it might have been seen as another violent act on Hyaline’s side, something she could not use at the time. But perhaps an un-forced social visit would be better anyway.

The white woman smiles a little, though she doesn't comment on his being good-or-not any further. Truth is, most people are mixes of what's good and what's considered awful, and there's reasons for one thing to come out more than the other sometimes. A threat to herself or her family, for instance, would be met with a much harsher version of herself than Vulgaris right now.

As he speaks, she nods to him. "She'd be welcome, of course." Surely, if she has a mother like Leliana, and a father like Vulgaris who's trying so hard to be good for his daughter (at least, that's the impression he gives the Andalusian mare), she'd be pleasant to talk to. To work with. Teach things.

She gives him a light chuckle at his confession that he wants to tell her goodnight, and this means he has to go early. "Of course. Say hi to them for me, and I hope we'll meet again soon." she offers with a polite dip of her head. Glancing at the river once more, she listens for his hoofbeats to leave, then heads back home herself, also.