For his entire trip to the River and back, Chulyin had been dwelling upon a little thing known as pride. Pride in himself, pride in his family, pride in the very land he walked upon. All but one of those was still intact now. Like the spumescent bubbles upon a beach, his pride was eaten up by the tide, dragged out to sea, and left to either float or drown. Chulyin felt as though he'd been drowning these last few weeks. Even now, away from the creeks that wound their way through this expansive land, standing so certainly on solid ground, he felt like he was treading water, desperate.

There was an acute nibbling in his brain, telling him that he had betrayed his family, most of all his sister. It wasn't simply the matter that he had been with a woman, a stranger with no ties to anything, but he had done it with some unconscious intention to father a child, a being that might challenge his beloved sister and Queen's offspring. And it bothered him since he'd stumbled upon this realization. The Knight, always so steadfast in his devotion and loyalty, had some inkling to take away the power that he had so desperately fought for his sister to keep.

As he moved through the tangled woods towards the heart of the Keep, a place he had not really seen in weeks, he knew that he needed to tell her. She deserved to know of his mistakes, no matter how minor she could view them. Because she ought to be able to punish him, and he ought to be able to clear his own head. Chulyin tread towards the dens, exhausted from his journey, though he held himself aloft as he felt it still ought to, to keep what was left of his pride together. Dark copper eyes roamed about the treeline in the hopes that Naira, whose scent seemed to line every inch of this clearing, might be here.