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What stood on the other side of the cavern was not a fresh hell, but instead a wonderland beyond anything Hope could ever have dreamed, and her eyes widened when she saw the pegasus standing before them, its wingspan a magnificent sight to behold. Her jaw dropped in wonder, but, obedient to Jhansi's instructions, she kept her mouth very firmly shut. The pegasus reminded her of the creature she'd seen in the council hall on Pandora, but compared to the gorgeous animal she saw before her, the pegasus she'd seen prior was only a crude copy, a pitiful attempt at capturing the sheer beauty and grace of the creature standing before her.
The pegasus bent its head as the two women approached. 'You see now how my brethren have been enslaved,' the creature said, its voice a deep bass in Hope's mind. 'They have been bred to be lesser, and they live out their days in slavery to the whims of the corrupt council.'
Hope glanced nervously at Jhansi, who gave her a curt nod. "They're... definitely not the same as you," the girl said. "I'm sorry, but seeing you... the pegasus I saw on Pandora looks like a child's drawing."
'You speak truth,' the pegasus told her. 'And you will have seen the other creatures there as well, all of whom have been bred in the same way. As the elves have also been enslaved and bred. They have no more power in that council than does a fly in the presence of a frog.'
"Then it's the Pandorans who have the real power," Hope said, horrified.
"Now you see why I didn't want to say anything," Jhansi told her. "If I said something, they'd catch on and have me arrested the moment they got their hands on me. Queen Tanila's power only extends so far, and her protection only lasts so long as I keep my mouth shut and don't say anything. That's why I had to be so cagey with you, and I'm sorry. I know it's going to take you a good long while to trust me again, but it had to be this way. We're safe now, so yes, the Pandorans are the ones running the show, and yes, everything you said in the cave and on Pandora is true."
Hope shivered and rubbed her arms. "Give me time," she told Jhansi. "I can't trust you yet, but at least you've told me that my fears are warranted. What is going to happen to my daughter, and to the other babies thought dead at birth?"
"That's a longer story," Jhansi told her. "Queen Tanila will tell you all, but you're going to be better off hearing it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. No offence, Lathon," she said to the pegasus.
'None taken,' he assured her, speaking in both women's minds now. 'But yes, as Chika said, you're better off hearing the truth about your foals from the women who suffered the most at the hands of those you call Pandorans."
Hope looked at Jhansi - Chika, rather - and saw for the first time that the other woman's skin was now pale golden fur. And she did have a tail, which was presently lashing in quite an agitated fashion, while the ears poking up through her hair were half-laid back. Things, Hope realised, had gotten a hell of a lot more confusing. But as the two women and the pegasus began making their way across the meadow towards the gleaming city in the distance, Hope took comfort in knowing that soon, some of the mystery surrounding the Pandorans' obsession with her child - and other babies - would be solved. She just prayed it wouldn't be too late for her daughter, or for the son taken from Emily and misrepresented as dead.
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