The grey-sprinkled champagne mare was to-the-point with a voice that sounded unused, and the slight grin that played at her mouth made Oswin want to smile, too. Though she was only half-way through her years, it wasn’t often that Oswin felt put back into her youth. Standing in front of this mare, she felt like a filly again. Something about the mare’s stance and presence put her in some sort of awe, stoking that curious fire that’d burned so bright in her as a babe. If she was younger she might’ve pestered the mare with questions until a nip or a kick got the point through that she was being annoying.

With age came enough patience to at least keep from doing that.

“Hm,” Oswin made a noise of amusement under her breath and grinned, “Well, there’s one thing we already have in common.” Though Oswin’s death was likely further off than the older mare’s in front of her, she too didn’t intend to leave the Peak until it was death who came to take her from it.

But her name - Anath - was actually a familiar one. Oswin remembered the star-and-moon lit conversation with Bane and Róisín where Bane had told them of her mother.

“I’m sure the Peak is happy you’ve returned.” No matter what took the sisters away, their grand, towering mountain always stood waiting for them when they found their way back.

She wanted to know everything. Her eyes were alight and she felt excitement in her veins. To meet another mare so decorated in scars, one familiar with the Peak as though it’s essence was woven into her DNA, was everything Oswin could have ever hoped for. She had never had a chance to meet the legend, Black Heart Machine, that her dam had, but it was because of the conversation the mare had with Dock that had one day brought Oswin to dedicate herself to this place. The new sisters had their wisdom, true, but the old ones had fought for this place during a time where mare’s had barely a voice on these islands. The struggles they’d come up against were what paved the way for mare’s to become leaders in their own right.

They were the first queens of the islands.

“Your daughter, Bane, is here. She told me about you,” it’s hard for awe not to slip into her voice. She might have some control and poise and manners, but this was a legend she was standing in the presence of. A mare who had been one of the first to bring the Peak’s purpose and voice to life. She felt it was excusable to be a little bit star-struck. “I don’t know if you’re much of a sharer, but any stories you’d like to entertain me with at any point, I’d be happy to listen.” She smiled almost a little sheepishly, showing more and more of that sweet and bright-eyed curious filly she’d been in her youth, not so much the pushy politician she’d become.

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.