Relief floods Çiçek at Faolain’s initial reaction. Her congratulations seem genuine, her smile pure, and for the moment her worries lessen. Hopefully, this is a good indication of how her dark Guardian will respond to the other, more consequential parts of her news. Siobhan was right, she thinks, her warmth at the red mare’s ability to read the good in others mixed with fresh pangs of sadness at her absence. She wonders, again, how her friend fares on Tinuvel’s icy shores, and makes a note to seek her out upon her own arrival to the northernmost island.

Fae’s remark makes her chuckle, setting her mind to work. Her freewheeling spirit, Solomon’s endless drive, and both of their silver tongues all combined into one soul… The babe moves so much already, stirring at all hours of the day. It kicks her ribs like it’s running some sort of marathon, pressing on her spine until her back aches and rolling around in utero as if impatient to get out and explore already. “I’m already tired just thinking about it,” she admits, knowing Solomon and she will be chasing the child all over the Islands as soon as it hits the ground.

She can’t wait.

Her face falls at Faolain’s first question, reminded again of the task at hand. She shakes her head in response to it, almost imperceptibly - but for the next one, she jerks her pale face up in surprise, eyes wide like saucers. Forced? “What - no! Oh goodness, no, not at all,” Çiçek reassures, pressing her lips to the ‘Teke’s cheek to soothe her. She’s not sure what she would have done if things had gone in that direction, if she’d run to her friends straight away and tell them or keep it a secret, but Solomon had treated her with such care, she didn’t even have to consider the possibility. The spotted mare pulls back some, quiet all over again, trepidation seeping into her voice. “But…”

She pauses, choosing her words carefully. She thinks back to her conversations with Sio; how had she put it then? “I want the foal to know the love of both of its parents...” Her voice drops low. “...so when the seasons change and the sea calms… I will go to live with Solomon in the Cove.”

She pauses, letting the gravity of her statement fall to the ground with a dull thud. She can’t take the heavy silence for very long, though, and rushes to fill it with words, her tones pitching up in her throat as her words tumble from her lips. “I’ve only promised to stay through the summer, for now, and I’ll come visit as much as I can, whether you want me to or not,” she teases, allowing only a sliver of worry into her voice, hiding how it crashes over her now in great waves. “I just -”

It’s too much. Çiçek breaks her gaze from Faolain’s slender face, looking out to sea. It helps, some, to ease the tension she feels, glancing at an unfeeling horizon instead of the mare whose life has become so entangled with her own. “My parents fought very hard to be together, Fae. They sacrificed so much to give me that. My child - any child - deserves to have what I had, if they want it, and more.”

After another quiet moment, Çiçek’s eyes shift back to her Guardian’s, unusually glassy with emotion. “Can you understand, now, why I have to go?” she asks, trying not to let her watery tones venture into pleading. She doesn’t know what she’ll do if her little shadow breaks apart from her. “I have to at least try.”