Something heavy hung in the air today, despite the warmth that was returning to Tinuvel. A relentless and overbearing feeling of something coming that he could not explain, but nor could he ignore. It pressed around him uncomfortably tight, not unlike the humidity that plagued the Atlantean lands. With dire warnings delivered by Nzingha and Daciana, he could not take such feelings lightly. Solomon felt it, but did not know it's cause, not at first.

In truth, it was Eastwise that brought his attention to the change in the land.

Solomon's gaze followed the two boys as they darted down the mountain, full of curiosity but not necessarily worry. Oftentimes, his children could be seen tearing from one end of the Cove to the other in various kinds of play, and while Eastwise was not his own child, not by blood, he might as well be. The close bond he shared with Menelik, and the adoration that Banshee showered on the boy was enough to make Solomon all but adopt him as well.

A grin lifted to his lips as he watched, although it faltered as the two of them crossed the border between the Cove and the Inlet. The spike in concern was unbidden, and Solomon watched them for a moment before realizing that the reason it felt so unnatural was that he had never seen it before. Most of his children had ventured from the Cove's borders at one point or another, some to terrorize the Bay, others to investigate the Crossing, but he had never seen the same behavior in Menelik.

Menelik had been an enigma to the tobiano stallion ever since he had been born, one that was much loved but not well understood. No amount of coaxing or coddling had ever brought a word from him, and he worried that his handsome son had suffered similar trauma to that which had rendered Banshee mute for so many years. Her voice was still a surprise to him, and he knew that the years in between the incident and now had not been easy for her to handle. The last thing he wanted for his son was to suffer in the same way.

For a moment he only stares after their retreating backs, curious but not necessarily alarmed. The Inlet, by virtue of being allied to the Cove, was open for them to explore freely in Solomon's eyes and he did not fear harm from Warsaw or his family. However, the aforementioned dread weighs heavily on him, and he moves to follow them for lack of something better to do, curious as to what drew Eastwise and Menelik from the relative safety of Banshee's peak.

Solomon trails after them, but pauses as the motley grouping comes into view. His gaze goes first to Warsaw, noting with dismay the ragged condition of the gray stallion. He had been in rough shape when Solomon had met him, and neither Bjorn or the wolves that had plagued the Cove had helped him recover. It seemed that his age and injuries were finally catching up to him, and Solomon knew that this was the source of the dread that hung heavily over the island.

Beside the decrepit king stood his son, Ironclad, his face clearly worried. Solomon had watched him from afar as he grew from an ambitious yearling to a determined young stallion, and hope that they would be able to forge an alliance as well. The balance of power would certainly shift with such an alliance, given the shift in ages and other factors, but Solomon knew better than to underestimate the son of a king, no matter how displaced.

Not far away was the third point in their triangle alliance, the Paradisian king Rougaru. Unlike their compatriot, Rougaru was healthy and strong, despite the worry also on his face. A short distance away lurked a yearling that looked suspiciously like Rougaru, but that was where Solomon's crowd gazing stopped, for Eastwise was quickly tearing into his father.

Concern creased Solomon's brow as he listened, but he made no attempt to jump into the family drama. Solomon did not know Echo, or the circumstances behind Eastwise's birth, but the implication that the young stallion made hung heavily in the air. It brought to mind his own indiscretions, and the times that he had crossed over that threshold, whether on purpose or accidental. For some, the issue was black and white. Clear cut, with no possibility of being mistaken. Solomon saw the monochrome goal posts, but he also saw the vast gray area that stretched between the two.

Misread signals. Good intentions. Believing that a child would create a bond that did not yet exist. There were any number of reasons that could muddy the waters between good and bad, and yet he could not deny that there was bad.

Kolfinna.

Her name rose in his mind, despite having heard it only once. Before he'd taken out his rage and insecurity over the Coda situation on her back and planted Menelik inside her womb. As Eastwise's accusations fall heavy into the silence, his mind goes back to her face, his own jaw clenching in remembrance of his crimes.

The lean tobiano stays quiet, not wanting to add accidental fuel to a fire that the two-year-old had lit. He does not know enough of the situation to know the right answer to soothe it, and so remains a silent bulwark. Slowly he moves to settle alongside Rougaru, offering his ally a brief nod before returning his attention to the tense grouping.

It is only then that his eyes attempt to find Warsaw to offer some sort of support, knowing that the last thing one wants to face while standing on their deathbed is a confrontation of their past misbehavior. Solomon would support him, if only to offer him some measure of dignity on his final day.

Solomon