The Missing Piece

Briar hummed softly with thought when her insightful daughter questioned whether they were good allies for us. "I suppose it depends on what you define as a good ally. On one hand they are very dependable and trust worthy. Your father and their Empress, Venom, have a good friendship and Ashen has had a long history with Armada so there's no concerns with our relationship with them conflicting with our other allies. Even if they aren't as sprawling and prosperous as they once were, they do still have many strong fighters and good access to useful supplies. Still, some wolves only look at alliances for what benefit we can gain from the relationship and if we're looking at it from that lens then we might not be getting much more than a good friendship and possible support should we ever need help defending our land," she explained, laying out the facts for Talyssa so that she could use her critical thinking skills and make her own conclusions. It would have been easy enough to assure her that yes, Ashen was indeed a good ally based on her own experiences with the Boreal pack, but she always wanted to encourage her daughter to assess things through her own eyes. She smiled and asked, "I think they are still good allies regardless, but what do you think?"

The shift to their discussion about visiting Armada and the difficulty of getting her and her siblings up to the other side of Boreas had her laughing as Talyssa pointed blame at her other siblings and her child-like father. "Of course, my sweet darling! You know how hard it is to reign in your father. He'd just wander off in an instant," she assured her with an amused grin. It certainly seemed like Talyssa's interest in going out to visit and explore the other packs wasn't limited to just Armada as the suggestion to go see Kotori's pack had the young woman just as excited. "We'll make it happen then," she agreed, glad to do anything that her children were interested in. Politics and pack relations were something that she had picked up in her preparations to be Queen alongside Artorias, but she was happy to share her knowledge and experience with her daughter while giving her more exposure to the other side of her lineage at the same time. "His pack is newer compared to some of the others so I'm not as well versed in how he has been running his pack, but I do believe it is more similar to Armada, yes," she agreed. "I know at least that he carried that heavy emphasis on family with him and he was far more interested in the fighting side of things than I was growing up. Perhaps we can learn more about his pack together."

"Briar Carpathius"