Ni'Srilan: The Desert: Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, uh shake it ; phishatriggah

Hypatia’s not going to break the news to Trigger, but she’s not very Queenly to anyone. In fact, she almost lit someone on fire for constantly bowing to her. She felt bad afterwards, but it had only been a little singe.

The other thing she won’t tell Trigger is that love, especially love like his, is hard for her to understand. Of all the things a scholar does not know about, it is love that evades Hypatia. She can feel the hurt and pain, and it flows through her as if it were her own emotions. But something has detached itself from those feelings. Perhaps it is her own pain. Her own suffering at losing so many.

As they walk, Hypatia listens carefully to this world of hell. It sounds so different from the Element. This Lethia seems to be held in high opinion though, even if she was stupid. But everyone does something stupid every once in awhile, right? Hypatia knows the power of memories and of losing them. She hopes she doesn’t ever burn her own memories away. (Oh, wait, she already has. But ssshh—she can’t remember!) But there is the love again. Even lust, this sexual desire, Hypatia does not feel. And having a child just seems like pain.

“She became mean?!” Hypatia cannot stop herself. She’s disappointed in this Lethia. In this Phlegethon.

I think I loved her. Hypatia is jealous of Triggerphish, and she hopes it is not apparent in the way her body seems to shrink in itself, the way her eyes don’t look at him. “I think I loved someone once.” But it is a story for another time, one that is as old as Trigger’s.

“Good.” Her jealousy evaporates, and she turns her head, mane billowing fire, to smile at Trigger. He is adorable in his own way, and she appreciates the way he treats her. She appreciates him being here.

He speaks of the sea then, and she listens carefully. Althea had not yet spoken with her about the sea, and she was wondering if Micah had left, seduced by Fenrisulf. Saphira, however, she knew to be Queen. Could Micah keep her under control. “The sea has always been like that, Trigger. I was Queen once there too. That had been a bad decision.” Especially because at the moment they picked her, a Fire mare, to lead them, Ni’Srilan had been borne.

“Anansi?” The name sounds vaguely familiar, as if she’d heard it in someone’s passing thoughts. A blush creeps to his cheeks, and he looks like a girl in love. “Well, I’m glad you came, none-the-less.”