Valve subtly watched Evaline and Vita Nova out of the corner of her eye, noticing the hurried whispering that was occurring between the two of them. It was only then she saw the slight swell of pregnancy in Vita Nova’s belly. She noticed Koray hang back a bit as well, clearly interested in the conversation going on between the two of them as much as she was. Valve wondered if perhaps Koray was responsible for her pregnancy and exactly what sort of opinion Vita Nova had about that. Evaline would certainly be hearing all about it, and in turn Valve would learn as much about what had happened as the golden mare was willing to tell her. She was an asset to Valve’s success in protecting the Dunes, even if she didn’t know it.

With her mind at relative ease in regard to the information she would likely learn from Evaline later, Valve held her focus on the two stallions. Orhan had little to report, save for A’idah’s return—a fact that did intrigue Valve enough to satisfy that he intended on holding up his end of their bargain. The black mare had never been particularly close to the Arabian, though she knew Gabbar had. A’idah had been a pivotal part of gathering information about El Aran, El Halin and Iftikhar—information that Gabbar had communicated to her and had allowed her to act as she did. Valve had never completely trusted her, however, and she still didn’t. She wondered silently why A’idah had chosen to come back here and stay with Orhan instead of search out Gabbar first. Unless Gabbar had never meant as much to her as she let on, thereby confirming Valve's suspicions that she only wanted to use him to her advantage. The important question now was what did A’idah want with Orhan?

“I do,” she confirmed. “And I know her and Gabbar were quite close, but I haven’t seen her around the dunes looking for him at all.” She paused a moment to allow Orhan to add a possible explanation for this to the conversation if he knew the answer.

“Just fine,” she responded. "Two others have joined Evaline and I since we last spoke.”

She turned to Koray now, half expecting he might add some other pertinent information to their conversation, but finding that he was silent—only listening. Perhaps Orhan intended to have his son surpass him soon, or learn something else from him somehow. Either way, Valve intended to find out the reason.

“And how are you faring here, Koray?”

VALVE
slenderman x black heart machine