2/28/2026, 9:19 PM
Aurelia seemed surprised. Solulfur wasn't sure what to make of that - perhaps she had overstepped in the discussion after all. They were friends, but maybe not the kind of friends to speak on these matters. Even so, it had been Aurelia's doorstep Solulfur had stumbled to, unthinking, only feeling.
I don't speak of these things. I don't think about it, normally.She said, attempting to reassure Aurelia. There had been no misstep in the silver she-wolf's confusion. Solukfur had...wanted to tell her, had wanted to talk about it even if she feared it would be unwelcome. She had never given much thought to romantic entanglements. Her brother's soft-hearted excursions into that realm had been a point of contention between them and concern, and finally a peaceful contentment now that he had something real and unshakeable with the worthy Dalmatia, but never jealousy. Her parents' ill fated union had turned her off such a path by the time she would have considered it.
And Solulfur was not lonely or heartsick, that was the root of it. She had come into her adulthood here, surrounded by friends. Tiberri, Solvi, Aurelia. Solulfur did not need the heartbreak a partner would entail. She had Aurelia to challenge her to greater heights than she would reach on her own. She had Aurelia to salve the cracks in her veneer. She had no empty, aching spaces within her soul needing filled.
She did not speak that aloud, hardly put that much conscious thought into it. It existed only as immutable, silent truth, like gravity, like the rising of the sun, like the changing of the tide.
Aurelia's anecdote unraveled the tension in between Sol's brows, creased into her muzzle. Her head tilted slightly, expression smoothing. The idea of some man needing rescued still having the gall to proposition the First Class was amusing. The audacity...reminded her of her own experiences, with another crueler kind of beast. Solulfur's growing, smug smirk slid off her expression.
Seems like it. A man once tore my shoulder open after I sternly refuted his crude advances.It was the first time Solulfur had spoken of the incident. The man had never returned, as she had feared for so long, and she finally felt as if speaking of it would not shame her in Aurelia's eyes.
Torgar would be better in the long run for having tried and failed in his endeavor, Solulfur knew this. Even if he felt he could not return to Dawnbreak or could never bear to even call her friend again, he would learn from this. It helped, though, to hear it from another's mouth. Solulfur was not as young and foolish as she had once been, and she knee what her shortcomings were. It was not outside her abilities go blind herself to her own callousness when it served her. And the long winter they'd been inflicted with, so keenly felt without their Sunlight, Solvi, had tried very hard to make Solulfur colder than she had been in some time.
The silence that lingered was companionable. Some strange kind of heat bloomed across her cheeks as Aurelia spoke again, and she glanced away.
All of...an hour ago, maybe two?Sheepish laughter followed the admission.
I've probably known longer - just never let myself think about it. Things ended badly with my parents. When I realized I needn't marry for duty, I knew I didn't want to end up like my mother, and never thought about it again.
