Summer Garden

Ashwen

It felt strange to be back home, in the empty house where Lord Ashwith had raised her. A house of knowledge, magic, and love. A quiet place of contemplation and reflection. A place where you could learn to be who you needed to be. Learn to be what you needed to be.

She'd finally learned that lesson.

Finally realised what she needed to be to finish this. There was only one answer. The Fae would go to war. There was no other alternative. The queen had claimed the life of the Arbiter, and yet she hadn't called for a cessation of hostilities. She was still mobilising her armies. Still pretending Janus was alive. He had become nothing more than a scapegoat to her.

Janus had been right. The ghoul was a weapon, an object of discord. His existence was for one purpose, and for one alone. To enable Summer and the Fates to move openly against the Fae. She couldn't accept that. Ashwen would be damned if she would allow Fae to turn against Fae for nothing more than their own selfish benefits. She would not forget the memory of the man who had loved her. She would not soil his memory by bowing down to the tyrant the queen had become.

This house was empty, but the call had gone out.

Every councillor had heard the call.

There was only one choice, and this savagery would not be permitted to continue. Ashwen would take her weapons to war, and fight, Fae against Fae. She would kill and maim for her belief. The queen was no longer fit to rule. Ashwen was going to take back the Evening Realms for the Fae. She would take back the hidden realms of the various Fae. She would capture the queen, she would try her, and she would stand at the queen's execution.