Róisín's tense posture relaxed the moment that Oswin let go of their Lagoon talk to speak companionably about Oswald and how excited he would be for a tour. "I would be delighted," she answered brightly, her dour expression already softened by the prospect of showing Oswald the world. They could go to the Ridge and she could let him play beneath the waterfall Sigurdr had shown her as a filly, and dance together while the bright parrots sang their songs above them. Then they could go see Luthien together, and find out if the Thicket really was a thicket like the name implied. She could even show him Tinuvel, and let him play with Sindri and Deidre.

Anything had to be better than the Lagoon.

The pregnant Prime Minister shifted as if to end the conversation then, and while a small part of Róisín drooped at the thought of being left alone just as the topic had moved to safer options, the rest of her was eager to escape the pressure of tiptoeing around certain subjects. The little dun had halfway lowered her head to the grass when Oswin turned back, and she raised her head again obediently, not at all expecting the next question that tumbled out of Oswin's mouth.

Róisín immediately stiffened, her shoulders hunching up and her gaze cutting sharply away to the blank walls of the Peak's namesake mountains. Guilt and anger flushed her face as she averted it, desperate to try and rein in her emotions before they gave away her feelings on the matter.

I just feel like something changed between us, Oswin said, and Rói bit her lip to stifle the bitter chuckle that welled up. Something had changed, that was for sure. But as far as the dun was concerned, Oswin had forced the change by allying herself with the one Lagoon member Róisín trusted the least. Silence followed Oswin's questions, and Róisín genuinely considered just walking away from the whole discussion, repercussions be damned. But Oswin deserved to know the truth. She probably wouldn't see it Róisín's way, just like Djuna hadn't, but she had to try for the sake of both Oswin and the poor babe she carried now.

"Do you remember when I told you I was a captive in the Lagoon?" She finally blurted out, her mismatched gaze cutting sharply back to the Prime Minister. It had been during their heated discussion with Rade, no more than a passing comment in her attempts to make the Lagoon Boss understand her position. Rói winced, realizing she hadn't named names then, and the likelihood of Oswin cataloging each comment that she'd made nearly three years ago were slim to none.

"He-" She cut off abruptly, suddenly realizing that just cataloging what Tyr had done would fail to convey the pain of it, or why she did not trust him. The Peak and Lagoon challenged for members all of the time; ultimately, it hadn't been the challenge itself, but the timing and the callousness of it that had rendered Tyr unforgivable to her. Wincing, the dun shook her head and tried again.

"I don't remember what I've told you of my family, but my mother has had a hard go of it." All of them did really, but Siobhan had been the one to pay the highest price each and every time. Róisín resolved not to go too far into detail, as Oswin didn't need to know what Siobhan had suffered at the hands of Aranck to understand that things were bad. "She had this enemy - the one Rade mentioned, Nyimara - that has done everything in her power to make her life terrible. She allies herself with anyone willing to make my mother's life a living hell. She's imprisoned her and tortured her under different accomplices over and over and over again for something my father did nearly six years ago."

Which was, of course, why Rade thought namedropping Shenzi's connection to Nyimara would stall Róisín's enthusiasm for Shenzi's freedom.

"And the last stallion she allied herself with was Cullen. Who ruled the Lagoon with Tyr right there by his side, his righthand man, johnny jump up." As much as Róisín hated Cullen (and she hated him an awful lot for what he'd done to Hades), it was Tyr's name that twisted with loathing in her mouth. The assumption wasn't entirely fair of Róisín to make, given that she truly had no clear idea of the relationship between Cullen and Tyr. She did know that they held their positions alongside each other, and that Nyimara had been known to trick men into helping her with some mysterious magic... and those two pieces of knowledge together had led Róisín to this rather obvious conclusion.

"We had just finally gotten my mom home again and gotten her to begin to piece herself back together when Tyr challenged for me." Róisín swallowed as the memory of her mother's terrified face swam in her mind again. "But it wasn't even really for me." She said again angrily, remembering the way she'd charged onto the Lagoon's beach furious and ready for a fight only for the massive stallion to immediately abandon her to go after what he really wanted. "He terrified my mother, injured our leader, and chased me all the way to the Lagoon because he was too chickenshit to ask for permission to vacation in the Ridge. And rather than risk being told - rightfully - no, he just took what he wanted and felt absolutely no remorse for it."

Her voice had grown in strength and conviction as she almost glared down at Oswin, as if expecting the mare to offer some platitude on the stallion's behalf. "He is a bully. And he might be playing nice now, but it's just an act. I caught him the other day trying to escort a mare to the Lagoon in the middle of Fall without bothering to tell her where she was going or the dangers she'd have to face once there. Reform or not, the Lagoon can't control all of its members." And while the little dun firmly believed there were good stallions in this world, the world had forced her to learn that there were just as many (if not more) bad ones as well. "And we both know the Peak is closer and if he had any honor that's where he would have taken her." Djuna had refused to see reason, opting to believe the charming lies of the brutish stallion and his vapid-minded son, but that didn't change that what Tyr had attempted to do was wrong.

"He's good at pretending to give you what you want. Just like you went to talk to him right after you were elected, and suddenly we were just supposed to be okay with the fact that they were holding the roan mare captive that fall?" She didn't finish the rest of that accusation - that Oswald's creation was somehow connected to Oswin's apathy about the roan mare - but it hung heavily in the air anyway. Fired up by her own words, Róisín was quickly losing sight of the way her tone was shifting from informative to accusatory. "And now this," she said, gesturing toward the mare to encompass both the news that Oswald was going to the Lagoon and the swell of her pregnancy. "I don't know what hold he has over you, but you aren't seeing him for who he really is."