Persephone's soft, sympathetic tone and the gentle pressure of her touch is enough for Arkana's already-weakened defenses to crumble. She leans forward into the soft, warm space where Persephone's neck and shoulder meet and weeps for several minutes, her breaths erupting in shuddering waves and her tears dampening Persephone's roan coat. By the time she pulls away, an incredible weariness has infected her to the bones, and she stands with her head low and her heavy-lidded eyes unfocused.

It's going to be okay, Persephone says, and Arkana wants to believe her. She loves her aunt with her whole heart, but she knows that things are very much not okay. She is going to have to explain everything to her mother; she's going to have to endure the resulting shouting match; she's going to have to figure out what on earth she's going to do with this foal, all while managing a pregnancy in a young, underdeveloped body; she'll get fat enough she won't even be able to run around with her sisters; she’ll have to face the terrifying ordeal that is birth… and then there's the question of the sire. How is she going to figure out who he is? How will she tell him? What if she can't tell him? How can she possibly look at any of those stallions in the face again, knowing what one of them had done to her, and knowing the secret she has kept from him?

As far as she's concerned, her life is over.

"I don't... I don't know," she says in a numb, quiet monotone, not even sure what she's referring to. The little girl in her wants to take Persephone's offer to tell Evren, but Arkana knows, realistically, that it will change nothing - if anything, not telling her mother herself will make Evren all the angrier. "I think... I think I have some thinking to do," she finally continues, her voice little more than a croak. " I need to be alone for a while. Just please... don't tell her. Or anyone. Not yet. Not until I've figured things out." Arkana's mismatched eyes nervously meet Persephone's for a moment before she leans forward to brush her muzzle against her aunt's smooth cheek. "Thank you for being so understanding. You're the best, Aunt Sephy."

And then she is gone.

Moments later, there's the snap of a twig in the trees nearby in the same area that had caught Arkana's attention before. Out from the cover of the naked winter trees emerges Evren, her copper eyes locked on Persephone. She is mute, and her expression is tense and stricken as she stands in silence, lost for words.