It is an odd thing to listen to @[Gale] talk about Wolfbane.
She had tried a few times prodding Heartfire and Kota for some explanation of who her father might be. Might have been (it never occurred to her that he would have been deceased until now). For a time, she had suspected that perhaps Carnage might have been sire. She was Gifted and what else could explain her abilities than a God-like father? It was only when her grandmother had seemed so repelled by the idea that fractured glimpses started to come together of who her father actually was.
Aela doesn't know about his Curse. She knows nothing about his struggles or his history. Everything she knows is coming now, from Gale. From her brother. He does something more than often the name of the former Commandant and there are glimpses of the man that Gale had brought to life. There are memories - a kind of warm, contented glow - that flicker across his mind, and Aela sees pieces of Gale's first life. She might normally refrain from prying too deeply (and thus becoming too consumed by them) but these don't feel private: she feels as if Gale is sharing them with her and so she sees fractures images of starlight and Loessian foothills and too many faces to truly glean just one.
The palomino watches, partially fascinated because it is so different from her upbringing with Kota (it had just been the pair of them and Heartfire, when the Visionary felt like revealing herself, tucked away in the Taigan fog) and because there are no sounds, no smells, nothing to that brings the memories truly to life. They are like Heartfire's, she realizes as she steadies her blue eyes on the brindled pegasus.
He was a good father, Gale says, when he was himself.
She starts with, "It's... nice to meet you as well." And it is, she thinks. Aela normally refrains from the pleasantries and idle conversation has never been her strong suit. She never settles long enough. The striped filly manages a small smile for Gale, trying to understand the meaning beneath his cryptic words. "Well, now you sound like Grandmother." Aela says. She doesn't make a further joke about the statement and asks quietly instead, "what happened to him?"