Her days in Nerine pass no differently than they did in Taiga; part of her longs to go home and yet she stays. There is a part of the copper mare that misses the way the trees familiarly groan above her head while she drifts into sleep. And yet there is a part of her that loves the way the stars sprawl above her at night here. It’s a comforting blanket of constellations and cosmos that she can wrap herself in as her dreams fly away.
Where Taiga has harbored her secrets, Nerine gives her a chance to set them free.
She isn’t far behind Brazen. There had been a few thoughts that drifted into her mind this morning with the incoming tide. The pair had been on that little beach that the Taigan often frequented - a quiet cove that curved behind a wall of granite. Lilliana had managed to tease the armored mare to venture canon-deep into the saltwater with her and then had done her best to keep her companion standing in the frigid ocean with her. (’Can you still feel your fetlocks?’ she had asked and then with a flourishing laugh, she had dared: ’One more wave. See if you can last just one more.’)
For Lilliana, it gave a chilling sense of clarity to her thoughts. And for Brazen, her friend stood still long enough for the healer to attempt to close the cracks in her skin.
They smell like surf and salt when they emerge from the cove. Lilliana, who hadn’t been able to locate Brine earlier, decides that she should try again. The chestnut had associated it with that the roan mare hadn’t wanted to be found. Lilliana had wanted to believe that Brine was hiding from whatever it was that she was afraid of, whoever it was she was afraid of.
She just wanted to believe that the mare was doing a good enough job of it that even Lilli couldn’t find her.
Their morning on the beach makes Lilliana decide she will try again to find Brine and then she will return to Taiga. She will go home and find Ruthless. Maybe Brine would even want to accompany her on the trip south. Maybe the distance between mother and child would be one she was ready to close. Lilli isn’t given much more time to dwell on these thoughts - there is a familiar voice on the breeze and Brazen has already moved into a brisk trot to which Lilliana instinctively follows.
The fact that Neverwhere has even called is enough that Lilli feels a horrible sense of foreboding, like a building storm whose thunder finally booms in the distance, as they travel across the Nerinian landscape.
When the group finally comes together on the grasslands, pretty Eurwen is there with eyes that threaten to break.
’He took them away. Brine, Brinly-,' says the spotted mare and there is a determined glint behind Lilliana’s blue eyes - that famous Legacy temper threatens again - before Neverwhere speaks of Tephra and the chestnut has a chance to quell the flash of anger. It’s an emotion that gets mangled with another (with others really - sadness, worry, despair) and the expression on her face is a faltering one. She meets the blue-eyed gaze of Neverwhere for a silent moment and then glances at Brazen. The other missing mare is a friend of hers, a close one and worriedly, Lilliana looks to her to offer any quiet comfort she can.
In her mind, all she thinks is that she has told Brine she would be safe here. She had assured her that her daughter would be safe in Taiga. Ruth.. and her heart sinks to the bottom of her heaviest emotions. If Brine is gone then that is what Lilliana will have to do first. She will have to find Ruth and tell her. She owed the girl that - she was owed to hear it from somebody who had assured Brine of her safety in Nerine.
Eurwen, who still seems to be riding the waves of her emotions (and rightfully so), stumbles over the mention of Tephra while Lilliana desperately wants to know who has done this. Gently she asks, ”Did you catch anything of his scent, Eurwen? Were you able to see anything discerning about him?”
LILLIANA
light me up, i will blaze
like a soul you have saved
@[Brazen]