He sees her with a stunning lack of shine to her hide, a despairing lack of brightness in her eyes, and he wonders what could possibly have happened. She casts a look behind her and his ears flatten to look where she does, not the warrior brother - and not the brother with whom she was in love - but a brother to the love who so broke to leave her last time. He would fight for her because this was his home, Rigel’s home, and now her home. He greets her, her reply is calm and quiet - so unlike the dark shadow over her expression. "Nem, Allah guides my steps," but already he is asking about the evil spawn of Set who had so misused her and she pretends to beguile him with a sentiment he would never have believed.

No, he would not send his best to a Son of Mira. Not even one who was gone from Miran sands. She diverts to discussing her exhaustion (which he is half certain is as much mental as physical) and he decides against prodding her about it further. A Maghrib woman without her husband? There was no end to the damages to her mind for having been made to choose to leave. And what of her daughter? He aches in his chest to wonder and so he nods instead to her point about being tired.

"Your brothers have also taken the trek from Miran?"

"I would grin at you, but I see your pain and your tiredness. So instead I will simply say - Yes, Rigel is here, is well, and is beginning to become something of a man beyond his histories and solitude. Enough of a difference that he might actually surprise you." It was a fact, after all, that Antares sought to match the blue-black brother with a First Wife -- and that he disappeared often, leading Aldebaran to wonder if there was not perhaps a secret romance he was nurturing for himself. He thinks, though, that there was real possibility for Rigel to become the most successful stallion of the entire Sadim if women kept falling for the studiousness and the collectedness. Shahrazad, this mystery elopement, and now Dhaniya?

"Come, you are home. Your marriage was broken when you left - but I know of a man who would redeem your honor in less than a breath if you were to prepare yourself through the rituals… keep heart." Aldebaran’s boyish smirk hides the maturity he’d since found in the new lands here. He perks his ears and bobs his head towards the inland sea of sand dunes.