It heartened him to see the anger flicker across her familiar face, as a defiant Vihar was something he was very familiar with. Solomon bit his tongue, caging the other questions he had in a smile that was both strained and overjoyed. He'd been worried for her welfare for so long that just the sight of her whole and healthy - pregnancy aside - was relief all of its own.

He told me I could be useful to him as a... a bargaining chip, she murmured, disgust evident in her voice. A part of him wanted to scold her, to remind her of the hours he'd spent trying to teach her and all of his daughters about the dangers of the world, of the Lagoon, and of Rougaru, but he stifled those lectures too. Telling her now would not change what was done. Regardless of how she'd ended up in Paradise, Solomon intended to give her the choice to stay or to go.

As she went on to further explain that Hyperion had been sent off-island with the rest of the family, he nodded, although he'd almost forgotten about the grandchild he had not yet met. Nadja had mentioned him upon her return, but they'd discussed so many things that night and then been distracted by finding comfort in each other that he'd not really paid the mysterious child further thought.

His lips curled into a strained smile as she mentioned decided to stay and try to help, rather than opting to escape for herself. It was foolhardy, but it was the exact sort of thing he could see Nadja doing in the same situation and could hardly blame Vihar for that.

"It's okay," he murmured reflexively, stretching to touch her cheek again. And it was okay. Or it would be, once their family was together again. A protest rose to his lips as she began to claim she couldn't return to the Cove until she finished explaining why, and his lips curled down into a frown that grew deeper and more serious as Vihar continued to speak. Rapid-fire information flooded in, and Solomon found himself frozen beneath the weight of the revelations.

She was about to foal.

Rougaru was gone.

Annubis was the father of her child. Her child was related to Rougaru.

But Rougaru was gone.

Vihar had claimed Paradise.

Rougaru. Was. Gone.

"You... claimed... Paradise?" Solomon managed, his throat tight with shock. His emerald eyes lifted to hers, searching her face for the veracity of the information she'd shared. He'd never considered Vihar a liar, but if Rougaru truly was gone.... That meant the war was over. Vihar was free. Feray and Ayzirek were free. His herd and his family would both be safe.

It was all, finally, over.

"Are Feray and Ayzirek still here?" In his haste to ascertain their well-being, he couldn't remember whether Vihar had ever met his glass-faced girl, or knew of her well enough to recognize her. Solomon couldn't imagine that Rougaru would have been quiet about his win of the pretty mare, but much of the wolf-king's mind was a mystery to Solomon.

A brief flicker of strategy tried to assert itself in his mind, a craving to set up a new power here to fill the vacuum left by the silver stallion's absence. Vihar would be an obvious choice for the poetic justice of overcoming one's captor, but she'd already admitted that she did not want it. Kudzu could perhaps take it, owing that it was, in part, his birthright, but he shied away from that notion. He had done his best to accept the colt as his own, even if the circumstances of his creation still plagued Solomon's nightmares. To even mention it to Kudzu's mother would be to risk alienating her, and Solomon knew what it was to live without her, and would not willingly walk into that desolate valley again.

"Either way," he murmured , returning to the present as the shock wore off and parental concern flooded back in, "I'm staying here until you foal, Vi." A part of him was suddenly terrified at the thought of Feray swimming home as heavily pregnant as Vi, but he stifled that thought furiously. He didn't know if she was or she wasn't, nor if she would attempt such a swim herself. And, while he hated to accept the thought as proof that the depth of his worry was disproportionate, Feray was also far more familiar with pregnancy. Hell, the first time he'd met her she'd looked ready to give birth in the Commons and had still swam home without fear.

But Vi was his daughter. And she was here before him.

Solomon