i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high
In a way, it is irony at its finest. They both ultimately sought the same thing - freedom. But they did so in such vastly different ways as to be nearly shocking. The tobiano colt cannot imagine sharing his every thought with another, cannot imagine such an intrusion on the one thing he felt most private. It is surprising to him that this is not the suffocation Aela felt, but instead the freedom she sought.
It startles a laugh from him, bold and careless as he truly understands their differences for the first time.
His first response to her skeptical question is a raised brow, followed by a broadly amused grin. “Not like that, no,” he replies with the nonchalance of someone who hadn’t just uncovered well-concealed secrets. “She visited mom once when she was a statue. I think she knew I was there but she never said anything.” He pauses before adding, “And she never felt that… loud. Not even in mom’s memories.”
It is only now, after seeing her in Aela’s mind, that Reave could appreciate just how tightly controlled their grandmother had kept her own emotions. And more, how anyone who knew enough to keep their emotional state under wraps could hide their memories from those with their particular gifts.
It seems he had not been wrong in imagining vision as the only thing that didn’t lie.
In the end however, that is not what presses most insistently at his thoughts. His gaze growing abruptly more scrutinizing, he favors Aela with a piercing look as he fits the pieces together in his mind. “But if she felt like freedom to you, then you truly do owe the North far more than you give credit for.”
A small, knowing smile toys with the corners of his lips as he narrows his gaze on her. “Or would you deny that she was the epitome of what being a Northerner meant?”
reave
@[Aela]