Having successfully redirected the focus of the conversation away from herself, Kore felt pleased. She allowed herself to slip into the niceties of banter and small talk, snorting at Maslakhat’s quick retort and gleefully returning Ak Burun’s smile. When the white-nosed mare stepped back, motioning to the water, Kore bounded forward without hesitation, trotting bouncily to the water’s edge. “Winners first!” she called over her shoulder as she went, glancing impishly back at Maslakhat. She couldn’t wait to rinse in the still waters of the oasis, to slough the salt and the sea from her skin and be born anew.

She hardly noticed that the other two were playing a different game entirely.

Kore stood fetlock-deep in the water, and had raised a foreleg in anticipation of pawing at the surface, when Ak Burun spoke again - and her words brought the Arab to pause, turning her head back to catch the rest. Her heart lurched at the mare’s expression, even moreso at the mention of her troubles. Kore had never had true siblings, being her dam’s only child, but the nymphs she’d grown up with had felt like sisters to her. Losing them, the visceral, keening pain of it… she couldn’t let it happen to anyone else. Not if she had a chance at preventing it.

The water would have to wait. Kore turned back around to face the two of them, looking with kind eyes upon the forlorn mare. “Ak Burun,” she said, “may I ask - what is your sister’s name?” Her tone, once bubbly with mirth, had softened to something more tender, her questions treading carefully in case it was a sore subject. She didn’t know how much use she would be, having arrived so recently and met so few others, but she would do what she could. “I haven’t been here long, but I spent a few days on the big island just north of here.” Perhaps she’d seen her from afar, or heard her name whispered on the wind.

Her gaze slid to the bay beside them, watching his reaction - and then something in her expression clicked into place, and her eyes brightened, hopeful. Her words tumbled hurriedly out of her mouth, nearly falling over themselves in their haste to be heard.

“Maslakhat, maybe you’ve heard of her?”