The Songbird and the Wolf

[ V ] Let the Dust Settle

The cheers have barely had the chance to die before the Queen is ushered from the dais with haste. 

Hands, what feels like thousands of them, intended to guide her but she can't shake the intrusive feeling they leave across her skin. Pulling her in a hundred directions, she is barely able to stay steady on her own feet as they pull her to the shadows behind the stage. 

With the same level of protection, the Eternal Flame is sped to out of sight. The second torch, however, never leaves her sight. 

Finally her wings expand with a near explosive force, it knocks several of them aside. But finally she feels like she can breathe again outside of their claustrophobic clutches.

"What is going on?" The words come sharper than she had hoped, but there is an authority to them unfamiliar even to her.

She is used to giving orders in a military setting, this is something entirely foreign to her.

"We need to get you out of here, your Majesty," a voice, or it might have been three sounds from the mass gathered around her. "We have very little idea of who or what might be safe right now, we need to get you there until more can be ascertained." 

Her brain speeds to catch up, after the day of madness everything seems to land as impact after impact. 

"Court Corvus has always been a great ally to Court Aquila," Declan's voice reigns supreme among the tones. Or at least it is the one Elodie's ears naturally incline towards. "And one with many debts to us, debts we hope today will be repaid." 

There is pain to the older fae's voice, his eyes darkening with every word. 

From what they were saying, she couldn't even believe in her own home anymore. 

"So loyal they couldn't help us before today?" The words are pouring before she can find a stopper, and by the time she thinks it necessary, it is already far too late. "So loyal they couldn't have prevented this?"

The flinch is like a ripple in the water, ricocheting further and further from the stone she had thrown.

"Today is unprecedented," Declan's voice comes again, soft as the clouds and sturdy as stone. "And there are only more unprecedented days to come, we need allies right now, your Majesty, and we think this is the best course of action."

"What were those words up there, then," she doesn't have the eloquence of her mother, the demanding tone of her father, even the careful guidance of her siblings. But when she speaks, all eyes are on her. 

Looking to her as a leader, in ways that had never been expected of her.  

"Simple fodder, absolutely meaningless only to appease a crowd I would sooner turn my back on than help?"

Her head swings to her chest, gathering herself, taking long, steadying breaths and trying to force down the feeling that she is trapped. 

A part of her prays this is all some horrible, cruel dream. 

But this is a pain even her worst nightmares couldn't conjure.  

Had it been anyone else but these two and Elodie would have refuted, demanded something else. 

"A threat to the Crown is a threat to the people," Elodie turns to where the ruckus of the crowd is still just audible above the din, no matter how they try to guide her out of earshot of it. "I can't just leave them to die." 

"They won't be alone, my Queen. We need to keep you safe, keep you alive. Give them something to fight for." 

"Let the settle, let us orient ourselves." Sam adds, in appearance the least alike of Declan's boys, but the most alike in personality. Brain over brawn, unlike Astor.