Desert

Vanya could not tell what thoughts lurked behind the girl's striking eyes, but she could tell that they were turbulent. She had lost sight of her charge for a short while on the Crossing, when they'd gone to rest, and she had returned smelling of someone else. It was... irritating, to the roan, that the girl might have been touched by someone who laid no claim to her, but also vindicating in a way. As much as Vanya understood she needed to share her king with the herd, her ability to tolerate his dalliances had grown rather short as of late.

Yet another grievance to lay at Titania's rotten hooves.

Interesting, the girl murmurs in response to the fawning words lain at her feet. She does not preen with pride as the overo might have if offered similar praise at a similar age, but there seems to be a new brightness in her eye that serves as enough indication for the Desert Queen to consider her opening parley to be a success.

The girl's answer regarding her name earns a faint bell-like laugh, and an inclination of the roan's head, despite the way it makes her wonder about Devi's capabilities. She seemed barely old enough for the season to affect her, which would make her hardly experienced enough to play the games of chess that Vanya had in mind... but then again, sometimes novices got lucky. And while Vanya personally despised the northern King, not even she could deny that the war would not have lasted this long if he, too, were not a formidable opponent.

Perhaps there was more to this girl than met her eye.

"Devi it is then," she answered with manufactured warmth, despite the fact that the girl's trailing words and preoccupied look had opened a new set of doors for the conniving mare. She let a beat of silence fall, allowing her interest to shape her expression into feigned maternal concern, even going so far as to extend her pale muzzle an inch or two in the girl's direction. "Is... there something wrong?" She prompts as gently as she can, her bright brown eyes fixated on Devi. Vanya wasn't a particularly giving creature, but favors could be useful. "Something I can help with?"