She felt him before she saw him, a roaring wave of comfort wrapped in his own shroud of sadness. Such sorrow, it matched her own. He was mourning her before he ever even got to know her, and she could not have such a thing. More than that, she kept rolling it over in her mind. Mortz was her heart, her childhood love, her best friend, the father of her remaining children. Mockingbird, he was something that Riopat alone could have. He was hers, to make her happy, to be what she wanted and he would be happy to mold to her wishes - though she would never manipulate another in such a horrific way.

When she finally catches his frame in her abysmal navy eyes, those flecks and slivers of green like little galaxies lost in a never ending space, she freezes in her steps. Never had she seen a creature so perfect, so intricately designed as her Bird. His voice brushes softly as a lover's warm caress against the white perk of her ear, the words only her soul could know she needed to hear. She did not need jealousy, nor grief, only that comfort. There was an aftertaste to it, a gently sour taste upon the back of her tongue that was his manifested sadness. Hatred for this taste blossomed in her heart, and for the emotion that caused it, but never did she direct her hate at him. Only his sadness. She had caused that, and hate turned to guilt.

He had been so happy.

"Bird,"

She began, the internal nickname for him escaping on a gentle breath that carried all the relief in the world. Though she had not meant to speak it, she had really meant to say his full name once more.

"Please, don't leave me again..."

A gentle request, spoken in soft and insecure tones. The sadness in his eyes infected the dark recesses of her gaze, one alabaster ear pulling back as she lowered her head. Her eyes never left him, she was caught by how handsome he was, how equally matched to her own frame he was. White paws move of their own accord, and suddenly she is against his chest, burrowing her face at his throat. Inhaling, she found what his own insecurities stemmed from, and found him to be incorrect. It was faint, but there, a relaxing scent of lavender. She shivered before tucking her haunches under herself, sitting closer to him as she found the part of him only she had ever discovered. The world dissolved away with that one discovery, her past faded away as if it had never been, she relaxed into her soul, and she found she never wanted to return to where she had been.

This is what life had been preparing her for. She always knew her role would be to save her own soul.