Desert

There is hurt in the girl's eyes and voice, made obvious by the way her gaze cast away and her voice dropped from curious to an almost studied disinterest. It was a jarring incongruity against the fact that she had cared enough to ask just moments ago, and Vanya ran her finger across the information lightly, wondering if this juicy little detail was something she could twist to her advantage later. Ra had a "daughter" he didn't claim, one that cared about him, even if he didn't return the favor, and said daughter was now right next door.

She stayed quiet, letting Devi accept the information of her "father's" living arrangements, and just waited her out. Judging from the girl's reaction to her proffered muzzle earlier, it would be unwise for Vanya to push on her just yet. Better to let the idea simmer until she had a more concrete plan before making any moves to comfort or antagonize her.

So do you have this place all to yourself? The question - innocent though it is - sends a wave of anger washing through Vanya's slender figure so fierce that she has to clench her teeth for a moment until the fury in her eyes abates. The answer should be yes. Yes, the whole of the Desert - and it's fearsome King - should belong to her. Had, in fact, been all hers until not so long ago, when the starry witch showed her repulsive face again.

"Not so much," Vanya answered with forced lightness and a stiff chuckle. "I have my King, of course," the one who belonged to her and her alone, even if he refused to admit it. "And then there are other mares about, too." Mares that Vanya had painstakingly gathered in the hopes of reinvigorating Rougaru's fire, of ending his apathy. Some had even already born him children, while others - like Surya - were harder to find. Yet another thing that she had done for the silver bastard that his newest toy would never deign to do.

"You'll likely meet them later," she goes on to explain smoothly, shifting slightly to indicate an open path beside her. "They tend to keep beneath shade when the sun is out, which I'm sure is a departure from what life was like on Tinuvel," she continued, not unkindly. It would likely be a harsh change in climates on the girl, but her theft was exactly what Rougaru needed to notice a few things.

First, that he had been too quiet, for too long.

And second, he only needed one queen.

And that queen was her.

"Walk with me? I can tell you what your new King is like... and then later you can judge for yourself." The pleasure of doing so, knowing that the herds of Tinuvel considered him an enemy, was a delicious thought. She could only imagine the consternation it would cause if little Devi became smitten with their sworn enemy, and fought on their side of this little war. It was a far cry, of course, so unlikely as to be laughable, but the pain it would cause would be delicious.

"He can be a little intimidating at first," she confided, as she began to step away, doing her best to encourage Devi to follow. In truth, Vanya had not considered Rougaru to be that dangerous; for the vast majority of their relationship, she had seen herself as his equal. Ever since she'd managed to dance her way out of his grasp, only to come home willingly - with a crown and his oath of loyalty - she had known her spot was at his side, not his heel. "But he took me in when I carried another man's son," she said carefully, having chosen this particular avenue owing to what she suspected had happened on the Crossing. "And raised him as his own. Drogon adores him," she said, with the faintest hint of genuine jealousy. Not her, as the mother that had sacrificed everything to bring him into this world, but his adopted father.

"I've stayed with him since then," a small-ish lie of omission. She'd stayed loyal to him (though, admittedly, it was fate that had forced her hand a few times), despite her little jaunts to the Peak and then the Crossing during his absence. "We used to live on another island," she mentioned, casually offering tiny clues for the girl to unravel later if she hadn't already figured it out, "but we moved because he wanted a clean break from the man he used to be and the memory of those that he had lost."

She let a small beat of silence happen, letting that humanizing comment sink in before lifting her gaze to peer out over the Desert. "It's a quieter life here," she murmured, a smile carefully teasing at her lips. "But he's happier, I think."

Of course, by happy, Vanya meant complacent. And while that had been enough, at first, when she'd still been reeling from his initial absence, it was not anymore. He needed to do something, and she'd been working tirelessly to give him all the tools he could dream of needing to do it.

She turned her gaze back to Devi, conjuring up her best interested-motherly-figure look of concern and tilted her head inquisitively, offering carefully chosen words as a question. "Do you have a boy back home you care for?"