The longer they stand in proximity, the more Rehoboam feels the longing for his home and his family build. Although it hadn't been long since he'd left Tinuvel, it had been the longest amount of time he'd spent away from home. Plus, this time he was really alone. There was no Suleiman sleeping back to back with him, or Galahad nearby on watch, or even Gavriel to make some cryptic Daciana-esque statement about the quiet or the dark or the moon.

There was just him, and a land of semi-hostile strangers that he needed to impress.

A wistful half-smile curls on his lips as the colt asks about the Cove and he nods, but his gaze flicks away to hide the guilt that rose in his chest. Yes, the Cove was where he had been born and raised. It was where he'd taken his first steps, and where he'd curled against his adoptive mother for the first time. It was also the place that he was betraying with his very existence here in the Lagoon. Flicking his tail to hide the awkwardness, he responds lightly, still not looking at the boy. "Yes, I was born there. And it is- nice, I mean."

And it was. He could imagine the cool crisp air running over his body almost as easily as he could taste the frigid mountain water from the river that swept through his home. His memories were so tangible and full, but they were just that - memories. And for now, that was all that they could be. Until Rehoboam had found his answers, he could not return to the land of his father.

Thankfully, he is able to shift the conversation back to the colt and his mother, and he listens with knitted brows as Azizi begins to explain. She had been scared? Reh thought incredulously, fighting the urge to pin his ears in frustration. He had tried his best to come up with a way that would appease both parties, one that would allow Shenzi to escape while not angering the Lagoon residents too much. Shenzi didn't seem to have a keeper the same way that Kvothe and Kiraz seemed to with Tyr, and so he had hoped that in exchanging the mare for the colt, he would appease his higher-ups while still giving her the freedom to leave.

Instead, she had come back. To the Lagoon. To the men that she seemed to hate. And to the imprisonment that made no sense to the young stallion. He'd wanted her freed, and she'd turned him down as if he were offering her spoiled fruit. It was, ostensibly, the best outcome for himself… but he hadn't wanted it then, and he didn't particularly like it now.

The situation that the boy describes is not one that Rehoboam had considered. She had been alone when he had approached, and so he had never thought that she might have other loved ones somewhere else. Ones that she would do anything to protect in the same way that he would do everything he could to protect his own. Rehoboam opens his mouth to refute the insinuation that he would have caused these nameless souls any harm, but it closes in a snap only a moment later. The truth was that it didn't matter what he intended. He was no longer Rehoboam, of the Cove. A son of a respected stallion. Now he was Rehoboam of the Lagoon. A Lagoonie. A mere pawn in a quagmire of evil and greed.

It didn't matter if his intentions were good if he willingly laid his head to rest with villains.

Why, the boy asks, and Reh's gaze jerked back to him as if stung. The why wasn't easy to admit to the child in front of him, who was innocent of blame. Reh wasn't sure if he hesitated because he knew the Lagoon would see it as weakness, or if it was because Rehoboam knew in his heart that he should have just let her leave without interference. For a time the tobiano is silent, struggling to word the answer he must give. He hesitated for so long that the colt reached the wrong conclusion and Reh's ears pinned momentarily, hating to see the colt blame himself for even a moment.

"No, that's not-" he began, but the words died in his throat. Was it not about the colt? Would Rehoboam have made his offer if Shenzi had not been escorting the boy? Would he have let her go without saying anything? Or would he have stopped her and brought her back against her will?

The worst part was the not knowing what choices he would have made.

Switching his tail, Reh listened as the boy made his counteroffer, guilt clinging to Reh's heart. "Listen don't… don't blame yourself kid. It's not…" He paused for a moment, struggling to find the words he wanted to say. "It's not that easy," he finally says, the words dropping to a whisper. It was never going to be easy here. "I don't have the power to do that here…" He tries to explain, but the excuse (no matter how true it was, it was still an excuse) was bitter in his mouth. "I can't-"

He goes silent for a long moment, his throat working as he swallowed all of the words he couldn't say. The promises he couldn't make. The wishes that wouldn't help either of them.

"I'll do everything I can, Azizi," he finally manages, his eyes prickling with unfamiliar heat. Gruffly his words tick up in their fierceness, and his ears tilt back as he meets the colt's gaze. "But you do not get to blame yourself, Azizi. We all… we all make choices. And sometimes we choose wrong. But it's not your fault." Again his jaw clenches as he wrangles emotions that tangle and writhe together. Guilt and fear and sorrow and anger and nostalgia. "You aren't going to blame yourself for someone else's choices." He says, his thoughts fixating on the fuzzy outline of a black mare in the snow. Voice dropping to a whisper, "you didn't do anything wrong," he finishes quietly and then turns away from the colt, unable to face his own mistakes any longer.