"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
His reaction to her asking about the darkness he had been born into is - annoyingly - a little intriguing. Were his reasons for preferring this darkness similar to her own? But then he’s smirking again - which is an improvement on the frown - and Anuya’s annoyance outweighs her intrigue. Her pale turquoise eyes roll a little but she answers the question anyway - because of course she does. “Not everyone but it’s a lot more common - I don’t know if we count as a whole different species from, you know, you horses or whatever but there were a lot of us and my particular family is… extensive. I definitely gave up trying to keep track of anyone past my eight siblings.” Between marriages and mixed breedings Anuya’s pretty sure she was related to every fae in the Rift one way or another. Some of her siblings didn’t care about that but she did. A little bit related was too much.
Of course, making babies had never been something on her to do list so it just wasn’t an issue - and as the youngest sibling she didn’t have to worry about being matched up.
All of it was ridiculous when she was 30 and still living with the lot of them and it was even more ridiculous now as she passed 50.
Anuya doesn’t like thinking about her family very much - there’s a reason why she and Sidhra had left - and she’s forgotten to pester this starry-haired stallion about the darkness he had been born into so she just says with a grin. “There were a few decades when I was young where I didn’t even know ears came in any other sizes. That's how rare your ears are in my... in that place.” She'd almost called it 'her home' but she knew better than that by now. She didn't have one of those just yet.
Eight siblings. He thinks of Tirza, the Mother and the Father. The misery of it all. The disdain with which the Father spoke of their Mother, how he’d tried to kill them the first time their paths had crossed -- hadn’t even cared enough to see that the job was done. The thoughts are brief, he does not allow himself to dwell on his own family or hers, he merely nods, digests the information.
He shifts his weight, head tilted as she continues. And he is surprised, certainly, to hear that she has been alive for a few decades at all when she does not appear to be any older than he is buthe does not allow it to register on his face.
And Gravitas is no flirt, there is no chance of him being charming with the parents that he has, but he narrows his gaze and studies her a beat before he echoes, “a few decades?” There is an edge of disbelief in his tone as he eyes her. There is no reason for him to be so relaxed here, no reason for him to tease her so freely, as if she were the sister he hadn’t seen in weeks. There is no reason for it at all, but here he is regardless and he’s shaking his diamond-plated head. “That can’t be right.”
The corners of his mouth turn down in a thoughtful frown as he turns that gaze out into the darkness. “Time pass differently in The Rift?” he asks, distracted.
She finds it a little funny that it’s not her comment about ears but rather her years that seems to trip up her new friend and Anuya can’t help but laugh when he shakes his head and says that can’t be right. It’s a light, easy laugh this time - nothing obnoxious. He’s frowning instead of smirking, which feels like a step backwards, but he seems thoughtful rather than disgusted by her advanced age.
His question causes her eyes to dance with more laughter, though she supposes it’s a fair question. And Anuya has to think for a moment if time did move differently in the Rift, but she didn’t think so. It moved a little differently for her but just in the way where years tended to blend together. But the Rift had a similar year to Beqanna, she was pretty sure. “No, my kind are just very long lived.”
A little bit of math and then “It’s five decades, if we want to get technical. And I’m the baby of the family.” She adds that last part with a bit of a laugh. By her kind’s standards, she was a young adult - just having reached maturity.
Which now sparks the question “How old are you?” He seemed like he was close to her age but she had not yet figured out how to translate fae years into horse years.
