Falls

An odd look passes over the stranger’s face when Evren speaks her sister’s name, and that expression lingers even in the quiet moments after. At first Evren feels a spark of hope that perhaps the mare had seen or heard of Indira, but when she says nothing, this spark begins to die away, and Evren then changes the subject, to enquire with polite interest about the mare’s intentions on Salem.

What then leaves the stranger’s mouth Evren could not have foreseen, but she will remember that moment for the rest of her days: the momentary confusion, the numb shock, and the disbelief battering at her like a stormy sea against a cliffside. Her lips parting and her heartbeat quickening in her chest, Evren stares blankly at the bay mare for some moments, wanting to believe the earnestness in her expression - after all, who else but a member of her family could be privy to those names? - yet having lost too many of her family members to truly believe the luck that has presented itself before her.

“W-what?” she finally manages, her voice blunt as a stone. “My mother had no more children,” she says, but truly, she does not know what happened to Arcana after the mare left the islands without a trace all those years ago. There is a prickle at the back of her memory that suggests her mother might have been pregnant when she left, but it had been so long ago, and Evren had been so young, that she cannot be sure if the recollection is real or a fabrication inspired by this conversation.

But just as quickly as the doubts come, they are chased away by the sheer amount of evidence before her. What had been a strange sense of deja vu just moments before morphs into a strong sense of recognition as Evren looks on the stranger with new eyes. Those long, strong legs are her father’s; that good-natured, determined expression is her mother’s, as are the curved ears, sitting like a crown atop the mare’s head. And the color, well… subtract the white markings, and you have Evren’s own coloring.

“Sister?” she finally says, her voice meek as a foal’s. She closes her eyes to ward off a sudden wave of dizziness, and when she opens them again, they are shining with emotion. She takes a step closer to the mare. “What is your name, sister?”