The figure of a fawn-child, winged and beautiful, catches her eye and Solace's heart shudders as she halts. Despite the urgency of her hunt, the groggy, rational part of her mind had not truly allowed her to believe one of her children would be so easy to find. A chill passes through the ghostly mare as her intangibility fluxes again, but she truly feels hope for the first time since waking.
Solace turns to follow the girl just as she is detected, and the pair face each other under the dappled winter light. The girl steps back, seemingly shocked, and the action quiets the storm of emotions Solace feels. She steps forward carefully, suddenly aware of how disheveled she must appear compared to her former self, and almost as unsure as her daughter is about the reality of the situation. But if this was a dream like all the rest, she didn't want to know. Not yet.
"Is it really you?" The soft voice asks, and still, it is so much older than Solace had imagined.
"Oriash," the name escapes her spectral lips before she can form an answer. 'Yes, it's me, It's your mother' They are words she can't bring herself to say - they are too strange and so different from any she has ever said to one of her children- they hold all the weight of their separation.
Her uncontrolled phasing loosens its grip as she steps forward again, as the involuntary magic wrestles with her need to hold her lost child. It pains her to maintain the polite distance kept by strangers. Still, she remains conscious of her daughter's reaction, prepared to halt should she flinch or move away again. It wouldn't surprise her if she had lost the privilege to hold her daughter; if Ori had grown too used to having no mother at all. But still hopeful, even as these thoughts cross her mind, Solace reaches out to tuck her under her chin the way a mother should, to feel what can never be truly captured in dreams.
"I'm sorry," She says, breathless and exhausted, regardless of whether her gesture is accepted. The time for explanations could come later; for now she just need Ori to know that she was truly sorry.
"I'm here for you now, If you will have me."
we are the ever-living ghost of what once was
