"How so?"

Rolling shrug. "It's not everyday I see a sort of Exalt I don't recognize, let alone two - and it's rarer still for one of them to smell familiar."

Eridani glances at Wyld and Ridis. "These two? Huh. What do you mean 'smell familiar'?"

Rolling shrug. "It is not, precisely, smell - but that one," it nods to Wyld, "Reminds me of the queen who allowed me to become who I am."

"...You mean the old Lunar, the one who used to rule here."

"'Rule' is... Somewhat imprecise. We loved her and sought her guidance, but the only laws she set were of non-violence."

"There's not a lot of concrete records left of that time."

"Unfortunately so. She and her honored daughter did what they could to preserve these lands - and Creation as a whole - but the disruption was... Severe."

"The Wyld Crusade."

"Yes. She died during that, as did many - but she died more bravely than most, and it saddens me that so much has been forgotten."

"It's been a long time. Even for Exalts."

"The honored daughter would remember, though it seems she has chosen to leave the past behind her."

"Who's the honored daughter?"

"I am surprised you don't know - you have the scent of one of her descendants."

Blink blink.

"...The Empress?"

The tiger inclines its head, clearly amused. "There is a reason Suul Elathea was welcomed here with open hearts. It had saddened us that little Layla chose to settle so far from the wyld - that family is ours."

Yeah, Eridani just, uh. Needs a minute. To process.

"...Did Gleam take her second breath before the Usurpation?"

The tiger tilts its head and says, "Yes. She had already guarded these lands for centuries when she elevated me - and that was some time before her honored daughters were born, and those three were adults when the Deliberative fell."

She remembers something Eridani had said about the Empress here, and her rise to power - 

"Wait. Her wife survived the Usurpation?"

...Unhappy rumble. "She did. Though many would have preferred it had Elathea Brightspear died there, in the same ignominy that took the rest of her kind."

"No fucking kidding."

She's mad at her past self sometimes, for helping in the Usurpation, for killing Luc's past self - and sometimes she isn't, especially when she sees the shadows of someone else's regret in Luc's eyes. 

Mrrr.

"I did not hold the same enmity for her as many - this temple was once one of the shrines surrounding the mountain where Elathea Brightspear was imprisoned between the Usurpation and the Crusade, and our Lady would not have permitted guards who could not maintain our neutrality."

"But it was... Sad."

"...Yeah."

"'Sad' is pretty accurate all around."

"...Especially if they had children. If they did - none were recorded in my world."

"Perhaps your world was kinder."