He can only imagine what it would feel like to have a tiny universe in your belly. All that promise, all that possibility. It isn't that he's jealous of her. Few things seem more foreign and horrifying than literally growing a child inside of you. But... there is something a little glorious about it.
This thought brings back memories so heavy that he must scramble to think of anything else. In her broad smile is the perfect distraction. Even without flexing his magic, he can read the excitement in her grin. For this one moment they are not regent and emissary. This is not business, or politics. This is a moment of calm between one storm and the next.He enjoys it, knowing full well it won't last long.
With Bexley's permission, he reaches out and gently rests his muzzle against her bulging side. After a moment of stillness, Apolonia kicks out violently at his touch. "Oh," he breathes out in surprise-- and then all his walls are gone. The walls that he spent months learning how to carefully, steadily build-- crumbled at the touch of a tiny hoof. The filly's thoughts slide into his head, mingling with his own in a wave of energy he's never quite experienced.
Oh, she is something special.
Dumb with surprise, all he can think to communicate with her is "hello," but she must also pick up the thoughts he does not have words for: the smell of her mother's skin, the feel of sun on his back, the weight of a long life.
His walls rebuild themselves in an instant, but the impression of her touch remains. In the silence that follows, Apolonia's dreaming mind haunts him like a ghost.
Eik draws back and blinks. "Have you chosen a name for her?" That word- her- is one of those things you can't take back once spoken. Did Bexley know she carried a daughter and not a son? Did she at least suspect? He carefully watches her reaction, heart fluttering nervously.
@
Bexley
Time makes fools of us all
