» A New Frontier

I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone

No one seemed that eager to press on into the mist. Erthë did not blame them, she was wary too of what might lay beyond those fog-laden hills and vales she could so barely make out before the whiteness took over and clouded the view. Small, woolen ears seemed fixed in a backwards, irritable expression as she listened to the babble around her, her own attention focused more on Kaos than any of the others that milled about. There were familiar faces there, revealing the presence of ones she knew and loved, but beyond a twinge of relief and a slight lessening of her burden of grief at the sight of them, the little mare did not acknowledge them. Even Tilney, when the good doctor approached and spoke to her, did not get more than a nod and a faint smile.

There would be time for talking later, when Kaos was gone, when the most immediate danger had passed and it was time to settle down and decide what to do with this place, and with herself, and with the rage and grief that still burned like a cold flame in her heart.

Kisamoa screamed then, like a child throwing a tantrum, and the pale mare found herself flinching away from the self-proclaimed god, fear and loathing twisting her features as she glared back at him. Without so much as a word, she turned and walked off, not towards the new vistas but back south to the familiar regions around the Portal. It was a small rebellion, she knew, but a rebellion none the less. Disobedience, dereliction of duty, defiance... call it what you will, she was not going to follow orders as if she was his creature to lord over and command.

She was not. Erthë's love went to the pale moon and the deep darkness of midnight, to the coiling mist and the four winds, her allegiance was to a dead goddess and a dead world, and the brave dead who had given up their lives to defend it. If Kaos wanted anything besides hatred from her he would have to repay her a hundred times over for what he had taken, and it still would not be enough. She would not forget, would not forgive, no matter how pretty he made this place or how well he treated the cowards and traitors who bent their wills to his.

Oh, Erthë would explore this world, and she would learn, and she would use all of what she discovered against him. But it would all be in her own time. And right now, all she wanted was to be gone from this place, before she lost control and spoke her true mind and brought more death down upon her kin.

So she left.

Right or wrong, I can hardly tell
I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell

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