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The sun was not yet risen over the wintry horizon when Lugh was disrupted from his sleep by an urgent message from his eldest daughter, Sunniva, and the druidess of the Burning Sun Clan, Kaede. Shaking the snow off his vibrant coat, the mighty Ard-Righ rose to his black hooves to plow through the snow after Sunniva, who looked quite distressed. His emerald eyes were yet bleary with insufficient sleep, but he ignored that. After all, a message so important that Sunniva had personally come to wake him up and that would get gentle Kaede up before the crack of dawn was worth taking seriously.

No other Stars in the herd were up at this hour, bar any of the champions who had drawn night shift. Few, if any, birds and small animals were awake, either. Most predators were starting to sleep or return to their dens, too. It was a relatively safe time of day, too. So what was this news Sunniva bore with such an urgent and distressed expression?

There was only way to find out, since Sunniva refused to elaborate. Go find out, and hear what had happened once they joined Kaede within the bounds of the Burning Sun Clan's territory.


Sunniva had stayed the night in the Burning Sun Clan to visit with her half-sister, Nos, as well as the rest of the rowdy champions of the warrior clan. It had been, as usual for the boisterous clan, an entertaining night with relatively little sleep. Sunniva had planned to return to the Royal Sun territory in the morning.

What had not been in the plans was being woken up long before dawn with an urgent message from Kaede, the Burning Sun's druidess. Sunniva's normally silky lavender mane and tail were still damp and tangled with snow and bedraggled from the sudden awakening not too long ago. But the business for which Kaede had summoned Sunniva was indeed of the utmost importance.

Actually, it had been of enough importance that she had instructed Kaede to wait in the Burning Sun while Sunniva fetched her father. That the High Princess was concerned and needed her father's advice was something of an understatement, as this situation required great delicacy in handling. She just hoped her father would understand when he arrived. And in the meantime, Sunniva wasn't sure how to explain the situation. Not at all.


Kaede hadn't really participated much in the party the night before. She'd offered to act as a lookout that night, instead. Despite her happier life as a lifemate to Lami, druidess to the Burning Sun, Kaede still wasn't much of a one for parties, and still felt complicated feelings about the concept of family, a concept strongly represented by the High Princess' presence that night.

Kaede had come around a bend while patrolling when she saw a small, deep pink shape in the snow, huddled by a thicket that sheltered it from falling snow and wind. A rather familiar pink. The same pink as her daughter, Shadow Queen Blodeuwedd, and as Blodeuwedd's father, Prince Evander. Kaede had hurried over and immediately began nosing the little thing.

Beyond the rich hue, so well-known to her, Kaede recognized none of her own daughter about the little Arcturus filly. But the coloration did remind Kaede of other Stars...in the Sunflare. She'd recognized the little one's pale blaze and shining mane and tail, the spotted leg markings from...none other than Ard-Righ Lughnasadh's daughter, Sunniva, and her descendants. This little one...a descendant of great pride and merit...was clearly an abandoned newborn with her eyes shut tight in sleep.

It was at this point that Kaede had gone for help, and, after discussion, agreed to stay with the poor little foal.


The little one in question remembered going to sleep in the snow somewhere else. And it being warmer. Shivering, she opened snowy eyes to gaze upon a totally alien landscape. Her mother and brother were nowhere to be seen. Frightened, she whipped her head around, trying to see anyone. Tears began to flow from the terrified eyes of the abandoned filly.

Fortunately, someone was hurrying around the bend. Two someones. One looked a lot like her mother, only different, and the other looked sort of like her, only golden instead of pink. She dragged herself to her soft, cold hooves, crying out in fear. "Where's Mommy?" she asked as she wobbled closer. "Where's Mommy?"

The two someones stopped, looked at each other, and said something quietly. Then the yellow one hurried away. The brown one that looked like her mother stayed and came over, wrapping herself around the little filly as best as she was able. The little one didn't understand, but it seemed like whoever these Stars were, wherever she was, things were probably going to be OK now.

Lugh stiffened slightly when Kaede referred to the little one as her grandchild. Then it was so. The abandoned little thing really did have Shadow blood in her, and not just any Shadow blood, but the blood of Moloch. But his muzzle was already almost touching the little one, and their eyes, one green as summer, the other pale as a winter dawn, had met. Fear and hope and sleepy-ness melded into a vulnerable expression on the little one's face. A distant echo of his bloodline was in the coloration and smell of this lone foal.

Sunniva also blinked at the reference, suddenly uncertain and understanding. Solveig and Blodeuwedd's daughter. Oh, Signs. A foal of the reputedly insane Blodeuwedd and her own cheerful and adventurous granddaughter Solveig. She looked to her father, knowing he had the final say, still uncertain of what to say. But she saw an expression of such intensity and wonderment as she could never remember seeing on Lughnasadh's face.

And it struck her. Solveig might not know of this foal, as Sunniva hadn't seen any signs of pregnancy about Solveig lately. Blodeuwedd had to have known about the little one, but, given the way the little one had shivered so and seemed to not know where its mother was while deep enough in the enemy territory of the mother who'd given birth to her.... Blodeuwedd had abandoned the child. And Solveig didn't know. The filly was alone in the world.

Stepping closer to the foal and her father, she whispered, "Father, please. She's all alone. My granddaughter Solveig I think is the other mother, and she couldn't've known. Please, let her stay here."

Kaede's eyes flickered back and forth between the Ard-Righ and High Princess. She saw something light up in the younger mare's eyes as she suddenly approached. And a great sadness filled the Princess's emerald eyes. She couldn't quite catch what Sunniva said to Lughnasadh, but she did catch the name Solveig. Solveig? Wasn't she one of Sunniva's granddaughters? Why bring her up, unless...oh. Oh.

Solveig? Was she the other parent? The little one did bear some traits in common with Solveig and Sunniva both. In which case...the little one was her granddaughter, yes, but also a great-great-granddaughter of Lughnasadh. Lugh had never been one to abandon any of his blood. But since the little one was great-granddaughter to his old enemy Moloch...would he abandon her on the premise that she had too much enemy blood in her and too much the look of those of Moloch and Avantasia's bloodline?

The little one felt the one who looked like her mother unconsciously wrap herself tighter about her, but didn't pay any mind. Her pale eyes were transfixed by the older green before her, and the extended muzzle, as dark as her brother's, nostrils flaring as he drank in her scent.

The breath was so very warm. Impulsively, she reached out with her own snowy muzzle to touch the midnight muzzle, and rubbed it against the silky, velvety warmth that belonged to the one who looked like her brother. Whoever this person was, he seemed so nice and so warm, so safe and strong.

Lugh felt the little one touch him with her muzzle and rub against him, soaking in the warmth. The tiny muzzle felt frozen. While he'd traditionally given the mothers and foals of his herd space to bond, to his knowledge, none of them were supposed to have a cold muzzle, especially one so very icy-cool. How long had she been left out here alone in the snow? He saw the trust begin to blossom in the dawn-pale eyes.

He heard Sunniva's words about Solveig. Which confirmed it and settled something in his mind.

"Has she said anything yet?" he asked Kaede gently.

Kaede looked at Lugh in surprise. "No, Ard-Righ. She hasn't. I'm not sure she has a name, either."

Lugh felt a smile cross his muzzle as he returned the little one's gesture. "Well, that won't very well do. I can't let my little great-great-granddaughter go nameless."

Moving his muzzle toward the little one's snow-flecked ears, he spoke, just loud enough for the rest to hear. "I name you Aine. You were alone in the snow, but you will not be so any longer. You will come with us, stay with us, and be loved. You needn't know pain any longer."