Their displeasure hung in the air.

Veselin had gone first to the easier of the two injuries only to be dismissed as Sarobie rubbed her hands together. Cold, yes, but it was nothing a little friction couldn’t fix, so Veselin moved on.

The gash in Melody’s arm was deep, the edges of her blood frozen against her skin and gauntlet. Her injured hand lay limp in Veselin’s as he allowed one of his own to hover at the wound. Ribbons of white and gold spilled out to work at pulling it back together.

Skye’s initial reaction was to check Melody, but after she was taken under Veselin’s care, he separated from her, retrieving the bow she had dropped. As he returned to her, brows knitted, he set it over her shoulder and said with sympathy “we don’t have time to stand around.”

“She’ll be at risk bleeding in front of them, and can’t fight anyway,” Sarobie mentioned. “She needs the healing.”

Melody adjusted the string of her bow with her good hand, securing it in place as she looked at Skye, Sarobie, and Tya. “You guys can go ‘head without me,” she nodded toward the door.

“I can stay with her,” Skye said. “I can treat it and we can be in when I get it all out of view. I’ll guess she knows we’re here by this point.” His voice had a hint of sarcasm to it as he circled to Melody’s front, unlatching one of many little vials from his belt.

It was curious that they’d yet to see the High Queen, or any of the council for that matter. The others discussed the plan of action while Tya was left trying to connect dots in her head.

She couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps Nisaki had betrayed them, leaving them to be slain by the cryomancer. The puzzle here was vast, and she lacked the pieces to put it all together. The biggest question she had, though, was the one that they all did. The one that had unknowingly brought her forward a few steps, something which only occurred to her after she set her fingers on the wet, thawing wood.

Shaken from her wonders by the cold, she glanced back toward the rest of her companions, faltering at the disappointment to be seen in the gaze Skye returned to her.

She had detected the aggravation radiating off both Veselin and Sarobie. Whatever feeling Melody harbored toward her, she wasn’t sure, but she certainly didn’t want to wait to find out.

“We should all go together,” Veselin said, his glare finding its source once more. “Just in case she tries to leave us to die again.”

Tya clenched her jaw as she returned the gaze Veselin had given her. For a moment, she considered a retort, but ultimately shut her mouth. She couldn’t say she didn’t understand that her actions were a little more on the selfish side. Fear drove people to do many things, but that didn’t mean others weren’t allowed to be upset by those things. Abandoning them to be ripped to shreds by that man would have been a betrayal, and the fact that she had tried to do so no doubt hurt.

There was nothing to say. She was going to finish this so she could go home.

She pushed the door open. Abandoning them, she knew, wouldn’t be a possibility. There wasn’t enough room for that, and the moment she opened it, they rushed after. The corridor was slim, nowhere to hide, but she didn’t try. She only followed the carpet to the door in the center of the hall.

Veselin’s magic worked at Melody’s arm as Skye led her inward, his green eyes wide with urgency at the tactless entry. It was more than clear that their presence had been anticipated, but that didn’t mean any of them wanted to charge in without the vague semblance of a plan.

Vague semblances of plans was all they ever seemed to have though. Mix that with a dash of pointless hope, and you’d find this pathetic resistance. The thought gritted Tya’s teeth as she charged her way through the middle door, swinging it open with one hand while the other burst into a furious flame.

She was met with the flourish of flowing purple fabric and a swish of beautiful black hair as the High Queen on the other side turned to face her. Her long, slim face held a closed, motherly smile, and while there had been the smallest hint of surprise toward the intrusion, it faded out as she peered over the faces of each of her visitors. She sighed, hands withdrawing from whatever it was that had her attention on the massive table now behind her. She pressed back to it, leaning as if she had intended to sit on it, but didn’t boost herself up to do so.

“I see,” was all she said at first, those fiery eyes glancing past them though the arena they’d just left wasn’t visible from inside the room. “I suppose he was rusty, having not fought for centuries.” And with that, she turned, much gentler then, and looked back at the plethora of papers that lay on top of a beautifully detailed map of Evoles. “Death does tend to impair mortals when it’s set in, in the manner which he had it. Wasn’t he an odd one?” She looked back to them briefly, but soon returned to the pages before her, reaching for a little spoon of melted, colored wax which she proceeded to drip upon a page. “You would think, after having been dead for so long, there would be some sign of decay, and yet his body was found mostly intact. They guess it’s the ice in his blood. His magic runs cold after specializing in the beksihr.”

Skye started to say “We aren’t here to talk about ---“ only to have Valya continue.

“I suppose he was stiff.” As this was said, she chuckled at her own joke.

Behind her, Tya heard Veselin sigh dramatically, and Sarobie mutter ‘oh come on’.

Disregarding her attempt at a joke as well as his companions' reactions, Skye continued to finish what he’d started to say initially, aggravation lacing his tone. “We aren’t here to talk about that man. I don’t think I need to explain why exactly we are here.”

“I thank you for realizing I’m intelligent enough to notice treason when it’s right in front of me.” This statement, while seemingly sarcastic, was said with a genuine tone. Despite her apparently knowing that her demise was nearing, she did not draw her attention away from her work. She pulled a brush from its well, and signed a document with her name in extravagant curled lettering.

“What we are doing is for the greater good…” Melody said quietly. In her voice, Tya could hear the regret and reluctance. “Will you surrender to us?”

It was this question that brought Valya’s eyes from her work. Her brow knitted, her smile then becoming tinted with surprise as she looked at Melody. She lowered the brush she’d used to sign her name, turning completely to look at the fox particularly.

“What an odd question,” Valya said. “Certainly not, no. But I will question why it is you’d even ask such a thing of me. Am I not your enemy? In your eyes, I am a mass murderer who has slain many innocents for my own gain, and you ask for my surrender rather than my head. Why?” Her smooth tone managed to relay just how taken aback she was by this.

Melody smiled a little, shrugging her shoulders in a way that said the answer should have been simple enough. “Because I don’t want to kill anyone. A hero doesn’t kill people.” Melody’s voice, while devoid of spite, seemed to still have implications toward Valya’s actions. And as Tya returned to look at the Sékan, she could tell Valya had caught onto this.

But the High Queen said nothing. She nodded her head once, slowly, keeping her chin raised as she thought over the words. She lowered the brush to sit horizontal atop the well she’d taken it from, then crossed an arm beneath her breast to act as a prop for the elbow of the other. It bent, letting her fingers find the main decor of a gorgeous gold necklace. She traced the gemstone that sat among intricate gold and silver swirls. “And did you not kill to get to me?”

Melody responded confidently, but her eyes shifted to the floor. “I dealt killing blows, but not to anyone that couldn’t handle them.”

“Quite noble...” Valya stood straight. She took an absent step forward, and because of this Veselin steeled, his weapon held outward in her direction. She paid no attention to it. “Tell me, would you hold the same beliefs if you had been Feral? If you had not been raised in a city, where your instincts were guided to becoming human rather than fox, would you find yourself unable to hurt another living being? Your kind is omnivorous, but do you refrain from eating meat? Would you treat a carnivorous Hybrid as a monster for their need to consume meat?”

Sarobie gave her no time to continue her questioning. The Sindor harshly said “it’s not what you need that makes you a monster, it’s the way you get it.”

To which the High Queen tilted her head. A thin shoulder rose and fell, and Valya said “you do not gather animals and slaughter them for food? You do not hunt and prey upon species weaker than y—“

“This is a useless argument. She said she wouldn’t surrender to us.” Veselin tapped Tya with the rod-like trap in his hands. In response she looked first to him, then to Valya.

The High Queen’s smile had faded moments before, replaced with a look of curiosity, but upon hearing Veselin, it returned. “The argument is useless because you’ve been proven wrong.”

Tya had stood by, listening to the exchange with a curiosity that matched The High Queen’s, but since Veselin nudged her into action, Tya decided she’d need to participate in what was happening before her. She did want to continue observing the interaction, but given the Amaloran’s impatience, as well as the persistent presence of her own, she assumed his side would no longer be willing to debate.

With such an intriguing conversation at its end, the fire that had been burning in Tya’s hand flickered, and she looked up to Valya. The Queen’s thin lips were still curved upward into a smile, and her glowing eyes set upon the flames but she showed no sign of fear, and didn’t make any attempt to escape.

Neither really mattered in Tya’s eyes. Her only interest was getting this over with so she could have her home back. Admittedly she didn’t think far enough into it at the time to realize that, while the Sékan would be headless and scattered without power, they were still a danger to her. They still knew of her home and when she followed through with overthrowing the High Queen, they’d know of that as well.

One of Tya’s hands extended outward, turning so it was held out toward Valya, almost as if she was asking for her to take it. The fire in her hands took liquid like movements, spilling over and out of her palms, then across the floor, again like someone had laid fuel to lead it. It reached the dark purple hems of Valya’s gown, and at that point, Tya withdrew. It did its work from there, catching her cloak and traveling upward until it devoured her. The flames ate away at her flesh, gradually reducing her to a mix of dust and fabric, which collapsed on the floor. The fire died as she did, and for a moment the group stood in silence. All eyes were on it, and something in the air suggested they were all feeling the same: They were all expecting more from this than what they got.