[open] Shadows for Skin [ANY]

[Aela]

There is very little Aela misses. She is always watching for smaller, minute details that could be easily overlooked. They can be indications of something: a horse’s health, a glance might reveal relationships otherwise hidden, and even memories can be indicative of mental state. These are all pieces that the Empath needs to put a larger picture together, because what use does weakness serve her?

Aela didn’t need her magic or any kind of supernatural power to tell her that wherever Cheri had gone had obviously taken a toll on her. The Pegasus mare laid on the ground, covered by twigs and leaves but Aela could see that her dark coat was far duller than her brawny companion and she far too thin. Where Obscene looked as he always had – well-muscled, broad-shouldered with a glossy hide – Cheri looked as if she had suffered  Pampas.”a harrowing ordeal while Obscene looked as if he still spent his days idling among the Pampas flowers.

She is still trying to understand what to make of the former Queen – a woman (though Aela would never admit it aloud) who had become a formidable rival over the years – when the gold-and-black stallion begins making demands of her, wanting to know what had happened to Obsidio, his son. And not a thought for Fyr, some part of her angers. 

Glancing sharply away and up to the towering brute to find his red eyes burnings and fine-tipped ears pinned to his skull, Aela merely lifted her pale chin. Her white nostrils flared, and when the striped palomino finally locked her blue eyes on him, she felt the rush of emotions churning beneath his cold façade – a churning tide that went from rage to dread (the Empath picked at that particular emotion, attempting to prolong it a moment longer so that Obscene might remember who he was addressing).

Cheri asks after an empire, Obscene worried for a child, and Aela fought the urge to scowl at them both.

Where had they been when the catastrophe happened?

”Gone,” she says simply, finally looking back to Cheri. ”Most likely drowned with Loess, Sylva, and the Pampas.”

@Cheri @Obscene phone post so please forgive the typos