Things had changed. I had changed. I did not know yet if it were for the better, or if this new lightness in my step was a temporary distraction, but it felt better.

I was no less sad than I had been before but I had allowed myself the grace to carry the weight of my grief for Aminah and guilt for what had happened to my Beloved and my brothers because of my actions without letting it crush me. I might still deserve for Antares' to strike me down as the Mira of his people, but I also might... not.

It was a foreign concept to me, one that I was still trying to wrap my head around. I could still hear Antares' words in the back of my mind, his frustration and fear and anger. The fact that our people deserved better did not change just because my Beloved refused to forsake me - would rather step down, unmake himself than dethrone me. If I could not find a replacement for them, then I would simply have to become that replacement.

To this end, I had been forcing myself from the oasis on daily walks. They weren't much, and I didn't always stop to speak, but I tried. I spoke with our small herd, shared small laughs and anecdotes with those I knew, and generally just tried to be more available. More of what I thought a Mira should be.

I was on one such walk when the shadow of someone ahead briefly blocked the slanting, late afternoon sun. I could not see them against the brilliant backlighting, but I found my heart not too heavy for conversation, and so I nickered warmly and shifted so that I could turn out of the sun while gesturing for them to join me if they wished. "Do you have a moment?"