Fell does not answer her question. Not that she expects him to speak, but he does not shake or nod his head, nor does he try to play charades with her as he had the first time he'd brought her to the waterfall. She followed his lead and curled around him to groom his coat companionably, but the repetitive motion only allowed her mind to wander. It should have appeased her worries to know that he had no further requests to make of her, but it only further illustrated the grave disparity between their positions. Whatever it was that deepened the hollows over his striking golden eyes was clearly not something he wished to share for now; by itself, this was not a problem.

Kohelet was a worrier by nature, but she wasn't the sort that needed to know every thought that crossed her partner's mind. But even she could see that the pressure sometimes got to him, and was fairly certain that at least some of that pressure had been applied by her own hand.

She hadn't meant to make things worse for him in the Peak and Kolfinna situation, but there was no denying that she had. Nor had she been oblivious to the way that he'd raced off after Blue the moment the tension had dropped, leaving her to stand there awkwardly like a lover scorned, a graceless child about to be scolded before her father. She'd deserved it from both ends, but it hadn't made standing there any more pleasant. There was no worse hell than scaring your child, cutting off your best and only friend, alienating your lover, and getting yourself in trouble with your parent in one fell swoop.

The days that had followed had been some of the hardest she'd been through, although she'd tried her hardest not to let the others see how shamefaced she was. She refused to be sorry for stepping in when she did, although she would not deny that her tone could have been gentler. In truth, she hadn't been prepared for the amount of disrespect that Blue had dished out despite the warning that she'd given during their first meeting of not being everyone's cup of tea. It had been jarring to watch a mare that hadn't even been there long enough to earn a rank stepping into her place at Fell's side, speaking for him, and then insulting her father - who she knew to be the King and Koh's father - in the same breath.

When compounded with her stress over Kolfinna, it had exploded like a middle schooler's overzealous vinegar volcano.

The fact that he came to her now, in the way that he had, had helped to reassure her that not all was lost between them, although she still had no idea where she and Blue stood. She had half expected a challenge to come in the days that followed, but nothing had, although that could be due to the way the mare's sides had begun to swell with the telltale sign of new life. Something told her that things were not fully rectified though, and so the thought of what may yet come had not left her mind for long. The worst part was realizing that the longer she considered it, the more advantageous such a change might be.

If Fell's intention was to fend off his sister and to continue making a name for himself by irritating every stallion across the Isles, she was ill-suited to help him. She was clumsy with her words, and untried in the art of diplomacy, which wouldn't have been so bad if she could stand at his side as a strong fighter to back him up if the worst happened. But was she no fighter either.

But Blue was. Perhaps not level-headed enough, in Kohelet's opinion, but definitely strong enough, and opinionated enough to stand against Fell where she could not.

She paused in her grooming and lifted her head so that she could peer at him from beneath the fringe of her dark forelock. As she spoke, she aimed for casual conversation, despite the fact that she'd rehearsed this topic a hundred times in her head since the situation had happened. "Fell?" She swallowed a bundle of nerves and shifted slightly so that she could see him more clearly, pulling away just enough that she could keep a clear head.

"I can see how much you care about Blue," she began, fixing her gaze on the whorl of hair near the center of his forehead. She had intended to ask him if he thought the little blue mare might be better as his partner than she was, but she faltered before she could speak the words aloud. Whether it was fear or selfishness or something more, she didn't know, but the words stayed caged on her tongue until she offered the next-most pressing thing she could think of. "Do you think I went too far?"