Oswin watched the mare leave them in silence, then drew a breath and swept her eyes up to Tyr. There was something broken and sad in her eyes, the fire she normally had all but extinguished to embers. “I’m here as Oswin today,” she said softly, wondering if Tyr looked so tired too because of the fight he’d been in or because of everything that the Lagoon had been facing lately. “I’m not here as the Prime Minister.” Even though she’d just introduced herself as such in front of the mare, once she was gone and it was just Oswin and Tyr, that was suddenly all she wanted to be.

“I-” She hesitated, looking at the Lagoon stallion and then back toward his home, knowing he likely had so many things on his agenda for the day and little time for surprise visits. It was so difficult to put down those walls, especially when so many doubts were filling her head about him. But standing here with Tyr in front of her and her heart sunk so low, her spirit so lost, she couldn’t listen to them. She bowed her head a little and asked, “Is there somewhere quiet here in the Lagoon we could go? Just us?”

Her eyes lifted slowly, looking into his and begging somewhere silently that her Peak General was wrong about him, and Oswin was right. The conversation they’d shared and the moments of intimacy after were what she clung to, wanting to believe that was what was right. If Róisín was right and Tyr was only pulling the wool over Oswin’s eyes and making her the fool, she’d pay every consequence for it.

But for now, for today, she didn’t care any more.

Oswin took a few steps closer to him, careful, knowing the adrenaline of a fight might still be coursing hot in his veins. Her half-white, half-gold neck stretched out and her lips softly touched his shoulder, tracing the large line of his muscle up before she tucked her chin back. Then, as if it suddenly occurred to her, she said, “We had a daughter, this time.” She felt a little guilty for being so wrapped up in her own mind she focused on that before she told him of their child.

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.