OOC: Set directly after the battle, before she goes to the Inlet.

She felt each attack that landed on her lover's skin. Cringed each time Nyimara's wicked hooves lashed out against the man who had sworn to protect her and her daughters. Roisin and Akadi huddled around her as the fight played out before them.

When Nyimara proved to be victorious, her war-like nature and obsessive practice proving triumphant over Ailill's strong effort, Siobhan's heart sank. It was bad enough that the mare had come here at all. Even seeing her face was enough of a punishment for the red mare to endure, but for Nyimara to come here and challenge for her old co-queen spoke to her spiteful nature. What bothered her the most about the challenge was the knowledge that Bjorn had allowed it.

That he had heard of her desire and approved of it.

Had not even bothered to come for her himself, and instead had sent the only creature in Bjorn's herd that she had not cared for, after her.

But Siobhan cannot dwell on these thoughts, not yet. She needs to say her goodbyes, as much as it hurts to do so. She turns to Akadi first, and wraps her neck tightly around the graying filly. "I love you, Akadi. I am so sorry that I will not be here for the next few months of your life, but I promise that Ailill will protect you. And I will come back for you." She brushes her lips gently over the filly's forehead. "You simply won't have enough time to forget my face."

With a final caress, she turns to her blood daughter, who stared up at her in the conflicting emotions of a girl who has only just now come to realize a few things. She wraps Roisin in a hug as well, but the filly pulls back after a moment. "Don't be sad momma, I'll be with you, and I'm sure Ailill and Akadi can come too. Daddy wouldn't say no."

Sio's heart breaks for the small girl, and even though she loathes Bjorn in this moment for his cowardly heart, she does not want to poison the filly against him. She is certain the grullo will do this in his own time. "It is too cold for you on Tinuvel, Ro. And if your father had wanted all of us, he would have asked." Her gaze sours as she looks up at the chocolate mare, ears pinned. "I have to go alone, but I will be back."

"No! Ro shouts with an emphasizing stamp of her hoof, tears gathering. "I want to go with." Her tone turns to pleading at the steel in her mother's face. "He's my daddy."

Siobhan's lip trembles in response to her daughter's emotion, but she says nothing for a long moment. The red mare stretches a soft kiss across Ro's forehead and caresses her cheek as the dun girl erupts into angry tears. Siobhan did not know all of the dangers that Tinuvel would hold for her, but she was not about to risk her daughter's life for the sake of the comfort it would bring her during her imprisonment. Angrily the filly tears from her mother and stalks back a few steps, raising her glare from her mother to Nyimara.

Heartsick at her daughter's reaction, Siobhan turns to Ailill as he returns from the battle and wordlessly crushes herself against him, chest to chest as they had not so many nights before. She wraps her neck around him and squeezes, wishing she could memorize this feeling, of his presence and his warmth and his comfort. "I am so sorry my love," she whispers against his coat