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He didn’t like the sight of Silka curling up to her stallion or her stallion, in turn, resting his muzzle on her skin. It reminded Raziel almost immediately of everything he could never have. It took him a moment to work through the anger to remind himself he had no right to be bothered by it. He had no claim to Silka, and he didn’t want to have any claim to her. He just liked spending time with her. He felt like she understood him and right now, when he felt like no one did anymore, that meant something to him.

He was just lonely. That’s the only reason why he sometimes felt jealous of her stallion or lingered his gaze on her a little too long. It was harmless as long as he never confessed it or acted on it. Or so that’s what he told himself.

“Ah.” Raziel made a noise of understanding and nodded as her stallion - Suleiman, he reminded himself to learn his name - explained why he’d been on edge. Suspicion tightened in his gut, but there was no reason for him not to accept Suleiman’s excuse. There wasn’t much time to linger on it anyways, because the moment Suleiman talked of the Bay’s leadership changing, Raziel frowned. His father hadn’t mentioned anything about that… He must not know yet.

Raziel almost wished he hadn’t found out, knowing he was now burdened with the responsibility of telling his father what he’d learned. Then Zevulun would ask how he knew that and Raziel would have to lie about a visit to Crossing or admit he’d gone to Tinuvel alone, which would bring up even more questions he wouldn’t want to answer.

Quietly, he decided he wouldn’t say anything. His father could find out some other way. Still he nodded and thanked Suileman for his word of caution. It was almost laughable now for him to have ever entertained the idea (even for a split second) that Silka may ever feel more than just platonic friendship for him. She was obviously quite close to a stallion who led his own territory. He spoke with confidence Raziel did not have.

The next words he spoke made the spotted cream dun feel even worse. “I know that Silka trusts you, so you are welcome to stay as long as you need to.” Raziel nodded, but he dropped his eyes briefly away from the stallion as he fought with his embarrassment at how rude he’d been thinking of the stallion. Even if Suleiman truly did feel animosity toward Raziel like Raziel did him, he was the bigger man and offered his home as sanctuary because Silka trusted him. Raziel wasn’t certain, were the situation reversed, that he could have been so diplomatic.

“Thank you,” he made himself say, even though the words felt weird and a little hollow, because he was only saying them since he knew it was the right thing to do. “I shouldn’t be too long though. I may even leave as soon as I feel I can swim to Luthien.” Did that sound rude, saying he was in such a rush to get away? He couldn’t worry about that for too long, because Suleiman asked why he visited and Raziel looked nervously at Silka as he wondered if he should tell the truth. Would she be suspicious if he lied? Would Suleiman be upset if he knew?

Raziel’s eyes swung back to the Arch lead. “I came to visit Silka.” But, he added, “She um, told me how happy she is here at the Arch, and even though I was born on Tinuvel I never got to see it, my family left the Bay when I was too young to have seen Tinuvel beyond its borders, so I thought I’d come see if she was willing to show me all the things she loves about it.”