Ni'Srilan: The Desert: to hypatia;

(Pls read the first part in Solira)

Enola Gay drops from the sky like a bullet before pulling up gracefully before Hypatia in a flutter of feather and air; she manages to melt back into her horse form with only a few awkward stumbles. She spits feathers – it might be comical if her purpose weren’t so dire.

She doesn’t wait – she says, “Solira has been ravaged again.” She won’t ask for Hypatia’s help in that matter – she is no Ambassador and has no sense of loyalties, allies, enemies, and grudges. No, she has a more selfish and specific purpose. She realizes her voice carries an urgency almost never associated with my Vane; she fights the instinct to alight again, return to Solira and watch over her son.

“My son, Passchendaele, is among the victims,” she says, although to be honest she cannot be sure: she couldn’t stay to watch the carnage. She tells herself staying would only have wasted precious time getting to the Oracle, is happy to believe this little lie.

“Hypatia… will you come help him?”

The Queen owes Enola Gay nothing; in truth the Vane is already in her debt for the help she received last time this happened. As this fact occurs to the shadow, as her selfish lack of repayment materializes before her and threatens, ultimately, to kill her and Chapal’s son, my Vane is gripped with frustraton – at herself, at the things about her that she cannot change. She does not like debt; she does not like chains. But she needs this and she will do what she must. Through gritted teeth she forces herself to say it, out loud, “I will be in your debt, Hypatia.”