After a short pause, the mare introduces herself as Taivas. It wasn't a very common name and Aurelia found herself tossing it back and forth in her head. Taivas. Aurelia had never heard the name before and certainly did not recognize the mare. It seemed the mare did not recognize Aurelia either. Not being recognized was a pleasant thing for the golden mare. She didn't have to worry about all her despicable actions being drudged up and getting interogated in the process.
Asking the mare about the Rift brings up an answer Aurelia mostly already knew. The land is sick. The land is trying to heal itself. The god is even inju- wait... a god? The pegasus's brows furrow as she tries to remember ever being told about a god. She'd been told about a Kisa-something, but never assumed the name was that of a god. "A god? There's a god here?" The land seemed horrifically godless (after all, what god would ever let their land sink into such somber tragedy?). If Kisa-whatever was this land's god, why had he hardly been mentioned to the pegasus? Taivus had to, at least, be the third or fourth horse she'd asked about the Rift, but this was only the first mention of the word god. In Helovia, the gods had all been so vital in everyday life. Horses visited the Veins of the Gods and prayed to the patrons. Herds had storytellers and oracles and the like whose sole purpose was to communicate with the gods. Horses held festivals in their deities' names. Horses had children with the gods. Was the Riftian god the same? Why did it seem all the horses here were simply less obsessed with this god?
"Besides the orbs," she began curiously, her gaze flickering momentarily to the orb that lazily bumbled around her. "Is there any other way to heal the lands?" If there was any other way to get the land back on track quickly, Aurelia wanted to know. The pegasus was capable of working hard towards something without randomly cheating and lying along the way, despite what many of the horses she knew assumed of her. Aurelia wasn't as simple as many thought. There were delicate intricacies woven into her very essence that made her so unpredictable. The mare was far more complicated than most around her were. Despite not having done many shenanigans in the Rift yet (a pregnancy could slow one down like that), Aurelia hadn't changed. The thrill of doing something she shouldn't be doing and the rush of adrenaline that accompanied it was something she craved so deeply. In many ways, Aurelia is hooked on the rush of adrenaline- a junky of sorts.
Taivas speaks up once more, claiming she has not met an abundance of natives. Aurelia wasn't sure if she'd met any natives or not. She wasn't in the habit of randomly asking about one's birthplace. For the most part, it was easy to tell if someone was a native or not, but then horses like Watcher slip in. He'd witnessed the birth of her daughter Aei'ith. He had guided her easily to a little pond where they could relax and talk. He hadn't necessarily been stingy with information, yet Aurelia could not place where he was from at all. He smelt like the Rift, but at this point everyone did. Even Aurelia, who had only come from Helovia a few weeks ago already stunk of the Rift's strange moss and bright flowers. The only true scent that was distinguishable on Aurelia that wasn't a common Rift scent was the lingering aroma of smoke that clung to Aurelia's pelt like dew drops on the grass in the morning. Everyone could be from the Rift. There was no one feature that indicated whether someone was foreign or native. If Taivas had told Aurelia she was born here, the ochroid pegasus would've wholeheartedly believed it. "I believe I haven't either," she responded casually.
After only a few seconds, the mare's mind refocuses on the topic at hand: the Rift. She remembers the tall spire and its crumbled counterparts that she had come upon in the company of Rixen. She wonders if Taivus would be interested in them at all. Aurelia had been enamored by them. She instantly wanted to rebuild the structures when she saw them in disarray, broken and shattered, on the ground. Would Taivus share the same inclination to fix them as Aurelia had? "Have you seen the spires? They are in the eastern part of the Rift."
Ultima
