Summer Garden

Ashwen

Ashwen was still sitting at the table. The other councillors were circling, yelling at each other. Arguing over what they had just seen. Taking sides, complaining that the queen was already overstepping, or trying to defend Janus torturing the heir to the throne.

She was still.

He was a monster. A demon in Faen form. How could the man who had smiled so easily... How could he be like this? He hadn't even tried to hide it. He'd called her a bitch and left. He had tortured another Fae! From what she had seen, Janus had actually tortured a Fae. Taken her to the brink of despair. Through pain and violence.

Ashwen balled up her fists as tears began to flow down her face.

How could the man who had made her tea so casually condone a sin against what it meant to be Fae? How could he claim to be a patriot when he treated his own kind as something less than even livestock? Did he see them all as nothing more than mortals? Did she ever mean anything to him? Or was she just another conquest for him. A convenient excuse to test his skills of manipulation?

Her fists slammed on the table, and the room went silent, turning towards her, and Ashwen growled, her fangs grinding together, "The Queen has spoken. The evidence is unambiguous. The arrest of the Arbiter has been issued. What are you all still doing here!?"

Fae muttered apologies and then began blinking out of existence, one by one. Apparently she'd hit a nerve.

She hoped she had. She was angry.

Beyond angry.

She had been used, and abused, by nothing less than a monster.

She hadn't just kissed the man. She'd shared herself with him. Began thinking of herself as his. She boiled with rage as she remembered his voice as he lay above her. He'd corrupted her. Stained her. She'd never be free of this. He was a vile creature, and she would dedicate her life to his destruction. No matter what it would take.