Ni'Srilan: The Desert: only 12 days late ; alkonost

Fenris called Hypatia silly. She also called her an idiot. Like mother, like daughter, she supposes.
“I hope we’ll challenge you.” It’s not like she can stop Shadow steals though – or can she? But she does understand the workings of a spy. Icarus taught her, however reluctantly, about that little lesson. Her spies here are a little bit different; Choke doesn’t count.

Oh, it was you who said the chess pieces? Fenris said that too once. Again with the similarities. “No, I don’t.” It’s a whisper, said with the exhale of ash. Does she? Does she move them to her will? Does she move the Element to her will? No. She is too small. Too nothing.

“Yes, but we don’t like elsewhere.” Hypatia doesn’t at least. And knowing most of the people here, they’d probably blow up and burn enough things that it’d look like a desert anyway. She might as well give them the desert to begin with, then they can make little crystals from the sand and blow up cacti. Which, actually, sounds like a lot of fun.
She hears Kail laugh in her mind. Something to do with Baraqel, probably.

“Here.” Hypatia does not give the small mare a choice, but leans in abruptly and places her muzzle on Alkonost’s shoulder. There is a flare, and it burns through Hypatia’s body and the Relic screams, and she can hear the cries of the Sins and the Twin Queen’s and everything they fought for burning alive. Hypatia does not move. If the wound would Heal, it would Heal now. But it is a painful process. She does not want to know how the Shard reacts to her touch.

“How can you be near your sister?”

And how can your mother have a puppy like Alcatraz? But she doesn’t ask that one. Reli-holder and Shard-keeper twins are much more interesting.