[private] someone whose course is steadier than mine; islay

[Islay]

The heat that wraps around Islay feels almost like an embrace and so she had dropped all her shadow camouflage. Islay had dropped her veil the moment she had realized that it was Aesta's warmth rushing towards her. It's wonderful, the two-toned girl thinks as she basks in the heat that feels like a balm against their dark world.

Like a secret language that is Aestas' to share or withhold, and she has deemed Islay worthy of knowing it.

"I'm sorry that it took me so long," she says, the edge of her smile tugging towards a rueful grin. She had waited and waited to see if the stars would return. She had wondered what hung the moon in suspense, what it was waiting for. And in a final attempt week ago, she had called to it with her magic to see if it might tell her.

But there had been no song from the moon and the stars had fled to further galaxies, where Islay couldn't find them.

It makes her all the more glad to feel Aestas' skin brush against hers. So much has changed since their last meeting but some things have stayed the same. Aestas is still the brightest soul she has ever met. She is still shining, despite the current circumstances of their fallen world.

Islay's pale tail twitches and it slaps against her pale hind legs as she tries to explain how the world has changed and yet stayed the same on Islandres.

The tides are always coming and going, she teases. As always. But some things have changed, she shares. Her expression is cloaked by the darkness but the pause in her voice almost trembles with the unspoke troubles. Until Islay shares them. Her father is worried about her wandering mother, who has been gone longer than she ever has been before. And even Gale - who has always been as steady as Islandres' tides - seems withdrawn and harder to locate of late.

"What of you?" she asks @[aestas], after another moment of hushed silence and shadow.

"Has your family changed with the darkness?"