Summer Garden

Ashwen

Lady Ashwen froze, and then moved her hands behind her quickly as she realised she'd been gnawing on them again. It was a nervous habit, suited to a young woman, but not to a Councillor, who now ruled six realms.

Her red-tinged wings fluttered nervously as she looked at the messenger in front of her, a Fae dressed in black, whose eyes seemed to be empty of life. He sighed heavily, "Your response, ladyship?"

She didn't want to have to decide. Didn't want to act. She didn't want to have to choose sides, to have to fight her own people. Death was eternal. To kill another... It was horrifying. She was still reeling from how easily her father had accepted his fate, and how brutal the Queen's execution had been. Yet here she was, with a lackey of the Arbiter demanding her loyal obedience, like her father before her.

Her father had been tricked. To try and force him to kill the Queen in dishonourable conduct.

Yet... The Queen was a vicious, violent creature that killed and bragged about her conquests. She'd killed a Fate, and claimed it was her right to do so.

She wanted neutrality, to keep her people out of this. But she knew neither of them would allow it. Not with so many lands, resources and people under her rule. She would be forced to choose a side, or to fight everyone. There was no way out of this without violence. Without death.

Ashwen tried not to bite her lip, and glared, "I will not speak to some servant. If the Lord Arbiter requires my assistance, then he will be the one to require it. He well knows that as Lord Ashwith died in a challenge, all his contracts are dissolved. I have no requirement to follow a contract I have not seen. I would be willing to forge one, with the Lord Arbiter, but I must have my due first."

The man nodded, and then shifted. He would carry the message to his leader, and all she could do was hope that Janus wouldn't take it as an invitation to have her killed. Or worse. Like invade her homeland and force the horrors of war on all of them.