The silence between the pair was heavy as they traveled - another burden for Iris to bear, another weight added to the crushing force that already compressed her lungs. Guilt had begun to insinuate itself for her lack of gratitude, and other inexplicable emotions had likewise begun to twine themselves through the tangled skeins of grief and anger and pain. Gnome’s daughter - having little energy to spare on such luxuries - made no effort to sort through the mess of feelings. Instead, the seal brown mare paused at the stream, slaking her thirst with greedy mouthfuls of the ice-cold water. It seemed wrong to seek relief for her own comparatively-minor discomforts when Iris considered her sister’s plight, but her strength was important. If she couldn’t walk - if she perished of dehydration or exposure or in the jaws of some predator - then what chance of salvation would remain for Eve?

Without warning, the harsh voice of her companion broke the silence. And though her eyes continued to stare northward - as if hoping to breach the distance that Iris’s body was too weak to travel - her ears twisted in the Codebreaker’s direction to indicate that she was listening. If confusion or curiosity were felt at the other’s proclamation, the blanketed mare gave no indication of either - she simply stood as still as a boulder, letting the waves of Adelheid’s indignation wash over her. Giving no reaction - and no response - until the dark creature was quiet.

“I’m sorry,” was all that Iris offered, without further explanation. And she was sorry - for whatever grievances she had inflicted on the other, for the comfort she had stolen at the expense of this stranger’s peace. It wasn’t just; it wasn’t right. In her heart, the dark brown mare knew that she should decline to impose on this Vulcan’s kindness any longer. That she should find her own way, in the dark, as Adelheid had (sardonically) suggested. But something more than desperation held her here now - some inexplicable connection that had bound them together despite the predominantly-bitter words that they had exchanged. Kindred spirits, Iris thought through her daze as she fell obediently into step behind the other woman. Pain leaves its mark on a heart, and these marks.. they speak to one another.

Things were easier once they reached the deepening shadows of the forest. Iris embraced the darkness readily, relying on it to conceal the vulnerabilities that her expression might otherwise reveal when she spoke. Less easy to disguise were the emotions that lingered beneath the roughened voice - sorrow and weariness and a perverse kind of hope. “If this is the Peak, then you must be one of the Vulcan sisters,” the white-blanketed mare began, her initial reluctance falling away with every syllable she spoke. “Is it true that there are those among you who can fight well enough to best a stallion?” It wasn’t hard to follow the thread of Iris’s thoughts to their inevitable conclusion - that the Peak might prove to be an invaluable ally in securing her sibling’s freedom. But even beyond that, she felt a strange sort of yearning - and not just to hear more of her companion’s rough, no-nonsense words.

Iris wished that she held the power they did, and the glorious sort of freedom that came with it. That she might have been able to protect those that she loved from harm, rather than stand by and watch the tragedy unfold, unable to end it before its mark had already been made. As it was, the spotted mare felt as helpless as a child while she stumbled along in the dark mare’s wake, the faint scents of the two brats that Adelheid had mentioned growing steadily stronger as they approached the cozy little alcove. Where the black mare entered without pause, however, Iris hesitated just outside, uncertain whether her welcome extended to the sanctuary where the Codebreaker sheltered her offspring. And paralyzed briefly by the grief-stricken realization that her niece had - and would - never know such security and warmth.

That the only place she would ever rest was in a shallow hole dug by a cruel, implacable creature.