The chilling numbness slowly settling deep within her bones was not abated as the sooty stallion regaled her with the tale of Jaskier's wrongdoing. She finds her mouth going dry - as if suddenly coated by choking sand - and the tears within her bright amber eyes finally breakdown the ragged dam previously holding them within. Silently the tears course down her cheeks and she turns her head away as if ashamed at their appearance. Duped once more; stupid girl. Her own thoughts berate her as she does a quick assessment of her time with the brindled stallion. While no cracks make themselves readily apparent, the blue-tinged mare is fully aware that she is to blame for at least a part of her heartache. How quickly she had opened her heart to a stranger - and how foolish that choice appears to have been.

A small gasp escapes her quivering lips as she struggles to bring air into her deflated lungs. Her chest burns as if the newly open wound were physical, yet she knows the insult remains purely emotional. She commands her sorrowful eyes back upon the brute before her as a stiff nod of her head acknowledges his story. The mare is acutely aware that there may be a vastly different version of the tale from Jaskier - yet he has not come for her and therefore cannot defend his honor. Perhaps one day she will have the chance to confront the man she so desperately wants to love. Today is bleak and her ochre brute has retained the last small iota of proverbial sunshine wherever he may be - this day will not be the one he finds himself on trial for alleged sins.

His quiet words, spoken in gentleness and concern, are the ones that catch her attention now. Her expectations of him - and all of the monsters hiding around the water's edge - were nothing short of grizzly and unbecoming. She studies him now through damp eyes, blinking softly as if to try and comprehend the gravity of her unmet predetermined assessment of the young stallion. "I do not hate you - just your actions..." her words trail off as a defeated sigh slips past her parted lips. "Yet my tears are not your fault. He has not shown face to rescue me...and I find your candor painful, but refreshing." She offers the boy a weak smile and accepts her fate as nothing more than a pawn in a game she did not agree to play.