Time to Look in the Mirror

As Manea had expected, her request for Desponia to walk and speak with her was met with a heavy dose of reluctance and a look that clearly displayed her suspicion, but eventually the other star-marked woman relented and started walking with her with a sigh. As much as Manea wanted to be irritated with her younger half-sister's attitude, she understood that she couldn't fault the woman for it. She had allowed her prejudices and emotions to get the better of her when they first found one another and Manea had been too prideful to back down on her stance—at least until now. Now it would entirely be in Desponia's paws how she wanted to handle things moving forward and Manea was interested to see what her estranged sister would do.

They made a path down the shore of the island, walking just shy of the lapping waves. "I heard you best Avacyn in a fight," she began, glancing at Desponia. "While I normally would not condone violence among my members or family, especially not from someone of your current position, I know my daughter's abilities and the fact that you were able to beat her does speak to your own abilities as well... I'm impressed." She hoped Desponia understood the gravity of the compliment and the new leaf she was attempting to turn by saying something of that sort to the daughter of her disowned mother. It would have been easy to simply leave Desponia as a slave and mostly ignore her existence for the rest of her days, but the birth of her second litter and the reality that it had forced her to face made her reconsider what she was willing to give her energy to. The misplaced grudge against her sister was not one of them.

She looked ahead of her at the path in front of them as she spoke, but she would occasionally glance toward Desponia to look for her reaction. "I have done a lot of self reflection and reconsidering of things through this last pregnancy and I have realized that I placed judgement on you too soon and unfairly. I underestimated the impact that our mother's betrayal had on me and acted rashly... When I saw you I saw her and that was unfair to you. If I am going to follow the Mendacium laws I can not pick and choose which ones I wish to follow and disregarding the rule that a child does not adopt the sins of their parent for my own selfish revenge isn't right... I apologize." Whether or not Desponia accepted her apology or not was up to her, but at least Manea had said her piece.

"Manea Mendacium"