[open] a sky full of song

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Had Gale seen the question in his brother’s gaze, he’d have answered, but there is quite a lot to read in Nashua’s face. Most of it seems to be happy though, so Gale does not look much deeper. He has put the loss - and regrowth - of his foot behind him both figuratively and now literally as he resettles his weight on the black sand. The single word that Nashua gives him - Noel - must be the name of the mare that his brother speaks of. Gale listens, curious, and smiles when he realizes that Nashua has made borrowing his vision that much easier. She is pretty, this Noel, even if she is not the prettiest white mare he has ever seen, and Gale is happy for his brother. It is almost sounding as if having children is a rather quick affair, if teenagers happen so quickly, but then Nashua tells him that the filly he’d seen so briefly was two years old. Years? But she was still just a baby, barely more than a fledgling. Gale frowns, but he has little time to devote to the math he has already put off once, because Nashua is telling him about the North, and Gale does want to know. So he listens, and the frown that he hadn’t meant to show disappears. The thought of a festival is exciting, and Gale makes it clear he intends to go as well. He is just thinking that perhaps he will ask Mazikeen to come along as well, when Nashua asks about Eyas. Gale shrugs before he can think about it, the “No idea,” conveyed as clearly as if he’d said it aloud. “She’s gone, but she’s fine.” Gale’s surety is born of his magic; she is refusing to show him where she is, but her refusal means she is alive and well. He’s not exactly sure how to tell Nashua why she is gone, so instead he adds: “I’ve decided to move to Hyaline.” @[Nashua]