They stand like two rock faces, eroded by grief and pride instead of sand and wind. Physically near each other, but growing ever more distant with each passing moment. It feels obvious to him now that things will never be the same. Not because he can't forgive, but because he suddenly doesn't feel as if it is a scenario that needs forgiving. Their relationship had always been haphazard. Half-understood words and actions had formed the foundation of a building too rickety to withstand the normal elements of life.

He had built a shopping mall for her, when all she'd ever asked for was a boutique. Forgiving her would be like renovating the mall and praying that this time, this time, it would be enough to make up for the initial misunderstanding.

No, Solomon, she says, and tears prickle in his eyes, forcing him to blink them away furiously. He hadn't realized how desperately he'd wanted her to say that yes, it would have mattered; that yes, she would have chosen him; that yes, there was still a chance for their future... until she said the opposite. The dual stab of denial and his name pierce the knife in and twist it, and he drags in a shaky breath indicative of his shock.

Again, they speak two different languages and he can't understand what she means. How can she say that him coming back faster, earlier, sooner, would not have changed anything and then a moment later swear that he could never be too late because she would always forgive him? It made no sense to him, and his head shook in an effort to clear it. It didn't make sense. He couldn't make it make sense.

It's not the same for you, she accuses. I could see it in the way you looked at me after I told you. She claims, and suddenly he is on the backfoot, scrambling to reason through her emotional tirade the same way she'd had to through his disjointed rebuttals a moment ago. He doesn't understand what she means, but he wants to so desperately. Maybe he's misunderstood. Maybe there is a chance, a future, a fix. Something they can use to patch up the holes that misunderstandings have punched through their shelters, a way to find the happy medium between mall and boutique.

When it's already too late, she intones, and he no longer has to search for the truth. Because the hope she'd given him a moment ago is gone. It's already too late. It's Already Too Late. It'sAlreadyTooLateITSALREADYTOOLATE. The words blur in his mind until they become seamless noise, and he watches apathetically as she suddenly backs away from him and jerks her head toward the filly in the bushes. His gaze remains woodenly on Valka as she explains. Again she switches, choosing to change from saying that it was too late, to saying that she would have given herself to him, and he knows that later, the whiplash of the back and forth will get to him and leave him weak in the knees when he finally finds solitude. He knows that he will grieve this messy end to what had once been fierce and wild and beautiful and that he will mourn what could have been if he'd only learned to speak from the heart and not take for granted the things that he was given.

He knows that he will spend days watching the Bay from the shelter of the Cove peaks, praying to catch a glimpse of her flame-red coat as she crosses her home while also knowing that he will never again cross the borders of the Bay without business to discuss. He knows that this will change things, not only for them, but for all of Tinuvel as the once solid partnership of the Bay and the Cove grows weak and wobbly. He knows that he will never forget this moment, and the pain it comes with.

But he is also a flawed and broken man. One who, believing in the absence of the love that he'd thought he'd had, has nothing but his pride.

And so he steps forward toward their daughter, angry that she was abandoning another child when he had only ever wanted them to raise a child together. He steps forward and he favors the confused yearling with the softest smile he can imagine… and he refuses to watch her leave. "Lets go home, Kesja."

OOC: T-T I figure we can end this thread & start a thread with Kesja & Sol if you want? Sol would not have caged her in the Cove so if she wanted to come see her mom & Bacardi she could have.

Solomon