Though Evren's head is still clouded from sleep, she doesn't fail to catch the odd quality of the smile that passes across Solomon's face: it's an intimate, faraway smile, as though he bears a pleasant secret, and it makes Evren feel strange to be the recipient of something from a stallion she does not know. She shifts her weight uneasily, suspicion prickling down her spine, while at the same time a pang of longing tightens her belly. It's been a long time since a stallion has looked at her that way, and though she should resent the feeling, she finds she cannot. It is the season, after all, and Evren has felt so low for so long that, just for a moment, that little hormonal pang reminds her that she is alive.

I'm actually here to talk to you, Evren, he says, and though Evren leans forward to accept his exchange of breath, one black-tipped ear turns back in surprise, and she experiences a second, even stronger flutter in her belly.

"Oh," she says simply, and as Solomon explains his reasons for coming here, her lips press firmly together. It's clear by the contempt in the stallion's voice that things had not gone well with Roheryn, but for him to be forbidden from seeing Feray gives Evren pause. While she doesn't know Roheryn particularly well on a personal level, he has always seemed reasonable and even-tempered, and has been a staunch ally of the Forest for years. For him to forbid Solomon seems out-of-character - even if Solomon had engaged in a tryst with one of Roheryn's mares - and it makes Evren wonder if she and Persephone do not know Roheryn as well as they think they do, or whether Solomon had caused some serious sort of ruckus in the Badlands.

Both possibilities are disquieting. What had Evren sent Aysu into?

"Luckily for you," Evren replies dryly, "I had already intended on checking in regularly, for Aysu's sake." She pauses, tilting her head slightly and appraising Solomon with sharp copper eyes. "You... know about Aysu, right? She... was my daughter's. Feray was kind enough to take her in alongside Esmeray."

Evren clears her throat to loosen a sudden tightness in her trachea, while a few wind-dispersed leaves flutter to the ground between them. Solomon had said there was a second favor he had to ask of her, but Evren is not ready to change the subject yet. "Did you visit her and the girls, then? How are they? Is everything okay over there?" She hopes her desperation is not evident in her voice.