Valdr's scent hung heavy in the air around her. The memory of his touch cold and unwelcome. Fingers. Fists. Lips. Teeth.

What had he become since she'd left him? Had he given himself over to darkness complete? Or had her distance led to a healing of his poisoned soul?

You are the only one who can tame the darkness inside me... I do not dare think what I would become if I lost you...

From the opposite side of the small room, Vala whispered something in her native tongue which sounded like a prayer. Fara wished, not for the first time, that she had defied the laws of Calate and learned the language of Leoth.  At least then she would feel less crippled here in this strange realm, less impotent amidst this new world she now found herself in.  She felt empathy for the Leoth woman, watching unseen and powerless as the male she loved was stripped of his honour and his innocence by her own brother.

'His friend spoke well?' Fara asked her gently as she rose and came to her side. 

'He did. But it will matter not.'

'You cannot think like that. If this soldier spoke to his innocence then there is a chance yet that your brother and Paeris will see reason.' Fara looked at the faces of the council of Leothine. She could see neither leniency nor mercy behind their cloaked expressions. A chill swept through her.

'Even if that were true, it is too late. Before Elyon of Lethane spoke a word it was too late.'

'I... don't understand?' Fara shook her head.

Vala turned fully to face her, her expression dark. 'Because he confessed, princess.' Her voice was harsh and cold. 'Confessed to the most abhorrent transgression a Leoth male can commit.'

'What is...?' She could think of no crime worse than murder, than rape, than the defilement of a child. She had seen Theodan kill Galyn, kill many men in fact, but the other two... somehow she could not imagine him capable of either.

'To breaking the law of the Plenary,' Vala said. When she saw that Fara did not understand the meaning, her mouth tightened impatiently. 'The most ancient of our laws; dictating that any male of Leoth, who bears an Azurian female of age to its shores under a Plenary moon, shall be subject to the full force of the Dark One's retribution.'

Theodan had spoken to her of it. Of the risk he had taken in bringing her to Leoth. It seems the risk was even greater than she had first understood it. It was my failing. I should have been more careful. I ask that you forgive me.

'But... I am not...' Fara whispered '...he knows that I am not.' She looked into the chamber. Theodan stood tall and dignified, his eyes focused on the council, his proud frame belying nothing of his condemnation. 'Why would he do such a thing?' She spoke not to Vala, but to herself, to the Gods, to any who listened.

Vala let out a small bitter laugh. 'Tell me, Fara of Calate, have you always had such a ruinous effect on males unfortunate enough to desire you?'

Fara blinked, stung by Vala's words and by the precision of them. 'Theodan does not... desire me. That is not why. Am I not under his protection?' She asked, tugging at the steel collar around her neck. 'Do I not wear a token of his ownership? I am his spoil, not his consort. Tis but obligation he feels.'

'No male risks everything to save a mere slave. He defied a king to keep you, he risked the pact with Zybar to keep you, he lies to our council, our Visier and our God to keep you. Just as your dead prince risked his people and his realm to keep you, so Theodan stands beyond this door and does the same.' Vala took a step closer to her, 'I would know how many more you intend to watch suffer in your name?'

Fara backed away from her, not because she was afraid, but because she did not like the sound of truth in her words or the look of it in her black eyes. 'I - I did not... want any of this...' she said, shaking her head 'If I had known I would never have.... if I'd known this would happen I would never have sought it...I would have remained...'

'You may not have wanted it, princess, but all four realms bleed still in your name,' spat Vala harshly.

Something loosed inside her, anger spiking her blood.

'Was it not Zybar who declared war on Azura?? Was it not Zybar who slaughtered a noble king gone unarmed to talk for peace?' Fara shot back. 'Was it not Leoth, who led the dogs to slaughter? Leoth, who are always so willing to do what their Dark God bids them. Leoth, who so easily forgets it's own crimes!'

'So easily you forget Azura's crime!' Vala fired back. 'The betrothal of Galyn of Azura and the Zybar Princess was all that kept Zybar from Azura's shores. All of Ethis knew this. Azura's heir was promised in blood to another many moons ago and you both chose to pay it no heed. You and your prince brought Azura's fall to pass, no one else!'

The words felt like lashes upon her skin. Each strike landing with the white-hot burn of truth.  Her voice was quiet and heavy with pain when she found it once more.

'Zybar had always intended to plunder Azura's riches for its own, Galyn did well to marry who he pleased,' Fara whispered. 'To have some happiness before his life was stolen from him.' What was one more deceit. In truth she would never know whether it would have pleased her sweet Galyn to marry her without the workings of a forbidden enchantment.  And you, would you have chosen him if not for Valdr?

'Of course, you and your beloved prince could not possibly conceive of an existence where you cannot have what and whom your heart desires.' Vala's voice dripped with scorn.  'You of royal blood think you need only covet a thing for it to be yours by right! The arrogance of it astounds me!'

Several long moments passed before Fara spoke. 'You are both well matched.'

'Of whom do you speak?'

'You and he whom your heart desires.'

Vala scowled at her. 'You know nothing of what my heart desires, human, so I advise you keep quiet on the subject.'

'I know far more of it than you do of mine. Your arrogance, Leoth, is to assume that my existence has been either gilded or grand. To assume that I have lived a life surrounded by indulgence and joy, to assume that I was sheltered from the evils of this world. You think I know nothing of fear or pain or hopelessness?' Fara took a small step toward her. 'Well, you are wrong.'

It was some moments before Vala spoke. When she did her voice was returned to cool calm.  'I do know that had you opened your thighs for a Calatian prince and not an Azurian one then all of Ethis would be better for it.'

If only she knew how compliantly you did both, my love... Valdr's voice sneered at her.

'I cannot disagree with you,' said Fara, bleakly. 'But I have paid dearly for the choices I have made. Choices which were my own.' She gave Vala a sideways look.

Vala narrowed her eyes again. 'Say what you imply.'

'You protect me because Theodan demanded it of you - not because it is your choice.'

'Theodan demanded nothing of me. He asked it and I gave my word that it would be done. That was my choice.'

'Because you are unable to refuse him. Because the heart has the power to make us all into slaves.'

'I am slave to no male.' Vala's voice was sure but her eyes flickered with the uncertainty of one whose heart was not their own.

'Then I hope you are prepared to pay dearly for your choices, Vala. For in truth, I was not.'

A curiousness encroached upon Vala's gaze, as though she saw Fara anew. As though she had been transformed before her eyes.

'If the worst should happen to him, my promise to him will be kept: I shall get you out of Leoth.' Her eyes were hard and cold. 'But if I ever set eyes upon you again, Princess of Calate, no promise will save you from the full force of my vengeance.'

What happened next was inexplicable.

Fara nodded, opening her mouth to acknowledge Vala's own promise, but felt a nothingness where her voice should be.  A void.  Hollow and cold. Her hand went to her throat where she pulled at the heavy steel collar, although she knew this time it was not to blame.

Her tongue floundered in her mouth like a dying fish, useless and desperate, while she looked at Vala and then the Visier, who stood alone with Theodan inside the now empty chamber. She tried to clear her throat, to cough, scream, anything to cast out the emptiness which consumed it but no sound came.

She felt something sudden and warm burst upon her tongue, a liquid which flooded her mouth before cascading down her cold dry throat. The substance felt familiar, like honey or milk but not quite either. It was also completely without taste. She swallowed it thirstily as she tried to take several deep breaths, causing herself to splutter and cough. The sound of her own gasping voice was a welcome relief.

'I... my voice,' Fara managed. 'It was... gone. I could not speak.'

Vala shook her head, confused, before a sound inside the chamber stole their attention toward it. Theodan was on his knees before the High Visier, his head thrown back and his arms out wide, his mouth open in a silent plea. His position recalled that of the great statue carved into the rock outside, Leoth captured at the moment of Azura's death. A chill swept over her then, deep and foreboding.

The Visier observed him for a short moment, completely still, before reaching out to place a gentle hand on his forehead. Theodan crumpled instantly at her feet.

'Theodan!' Vala cried, forcing open the door and speeding into the chamber where she fell at his side. Pulling him into her arms, she looked up beseechingly at the Visier.

Fara followed her inside on unthinking feet and felt almost immediately a dull tremor move through the hot ground beneath her feet. It surged up through her body and prickled hotly across her scalp, and as it did she heard what sounded like a thousand voices echoing all at once all around her. Whispers that she knew were of this place but not of this time, words of the innocent, of the guilty, words she knew were spoken in Leoth but that she now somehow understood. The walls around her opening her mind to the language of this dark realm.

The rush of ancient voices faded and the pounding feet of the Visier's guard took its place as they moved as one across the chamber. Following them to where Theodan lay motionless on the floor, Fara saw his eyes were wide open but unseeing, a milky grey surface where before had been only darkest night or shimmering light. The life behind his eyes extinguished.

Looking at Theodan's lifeless body she felt suddenly adrift in a great sea, exposed and defenceless amidst its violent and hungry waves. The very thought that he might not wake left her awash with a feeling of loss she could not rightly explain. She could not forgive what he had done to Galyn, and nor did she understand the absence of the vengeance she had clung to so fervently in Azura, but there had grown between them a bond. A bond between victor and spoil, between master and slave, between human and Leoth.

Whether this bond came through the power of enchanted leoth steel, or from a sharing of secrets and truths, she knew not. All she knew was that without Theodan, she was truly and finally alone.

Please, Goddess. Do not take him. Please do not take him from me too. Not yet, Fara whispered, her mouth moving but the words unspoken.

'High One, please,' Vala begged, 'Let me help him, please.' Panic and determination made her look warrior-like as she brought her wrist to her mouth and bared her teeth upon the skin. Fara sucked in a gasp. 

'You will not,' the Visier commanded. 'No blood shall be shed in His esteemed court, Vala of Esterus.' The next words she spoke were gentle and aimed to soothe. 'The all sight can be a great burden - even upon the strongest of us - but We are confident of Son of Ishilde's recovery. We need only be patient.' She motioned for the guards, who moved to crowd around Theodan where he lay, much like they had surrounded the pool outside where Fara had spoken with the Visier.

Theodan did not move nor awake. He lay still, cadaverous eyes wide and unblinking.

She realised quickly her folly. It would not be Azura who would come to take Theodan from the mortal world, but Him. There was but one God who would claim the soul of a Leoth soldier at the gates of the under realm.

She only hoped the human tongue would reach him.

I worship you not, Dark One, but I beg you return him to me. I... - she searched for the words - ... I need him. You cannot take him from me. Please. I beseech you.

She felt a rough grip pull her back from Theodan's lifeless body. 'You do not belong here, human,' The Leoth called Paeris hissed. His Leothine eyes were entirely dark, they bore no warming light to centre or soften them as Theodan's did.  Behind him, the other councillors had returned to the chamber and stood watching with a curious kind of detachment. 

'I meant no offence,' replied Fara, meekly. 'I... I desired only to see that the commander was well.'

'But offend you have. Humans have been long forbidden inside the court of the moon - or did your master neglect to tell you?' He glanced uncaringly at Theodan where he lay. 'In any case, your concern for him is misplaced - you belong to the realm now.' He lowered his mouth to her ear and sucked in a breath to scent her. 'Though I think I shall request you for myself - you must have served him well if he would risk a kings wrath to keep you.'

A plague from which every realm of Ethis suffered it seemed; males who sought to take their pleasure from females without their consent. The fire grew from the very pit of her stomach, quick and furious as it tore through her body and ignited her blood. She pulled her arm from his grip and turned fully to face him.

'I assure you Leoth, you will not live long should you harm me in any way. ' Her wrath was a comfort to her then; it felt alive. A great beast which moved and breathed within her, which would protect her. She was no longer a playing ground where males would entertain themselves.

The leoth councillor blinked in shock, his sharp cheekbones reddening from anger. His thin lips peeled back from a line of sharp greying teeth, from behind which came a low hiss. She did not see him raise his hand, she only felt the force of it when it struck her hard across the face.

Hot white pain lashed across her cheek, her teeth cutting through the flesh as she was sent hurtling to the floor. Her own blood flooded her mouth.

'You would dare threaten me, a servant of Leoth?' he spat.  'Here? You who are worth nothing!' He looked disgusted by the sight of her now. 'Menodice!! Take this Azurian waste to the rock. I shall deal with it later.'

Because the blood threatened to spill from her mouth, she bent her head and spat it out onto the marble floor as gracefully as she was able. Then, raising herself to her feet, she wiped the sleeve of her gown across her mouth and looked at him directly.

'No soul, no matter how lowly you see them, is ever worth nothing,' she stated. She had thought to say something else; some ill-advised words of threat or insult that would only hasten her end, but something caught her eye.  A blurred form flew across the chamber toward Paeris, lifted him from the ground and hurled him across the chamber.  Marble cracked under the force of the Leoth's landing. Theodan landed in an almost silent crouch where Paeris lay and then with a single hand around his throat lifted him up off the chamber floor.

'You would dare harm that which carries my name?' Theodan growled through bared teeth. His recovery was astounding. His strength fully recovered, his warrior frame quaked with power and fury. Paeris's feet dangled helplessly above the ground, his long Leothine limbs rendered weak and insignificant when matched with the warrior at this throat.

'She — belongs — to the — realm...' Paeris spluttered, his eyes bulging wide as he clutched at the hand around his throat.

'I surrendered her to the protection of this realm. And yet you strike her here before His court and call yourself His servant?' Theodan spat.

'She has no rights here,' choked Paeris. 'The human... should not... be inside this court.'

'And yet the Dark One allowed it.' It was the Visier's voice, soft but heaped with authority. She had returned at some point to her seat and sat now with her hands clasped demurely in her lap. As though awaiting something. 'You would question His will, Paeris of Mennir?'

Theodan appeared to loosen his grip, for Paeris sucked in a desperate breath. 'No Visier. It is only... the human was disobedient... It... could not be tolerated...'

'Violence is not tolerated inside these hallowed walls. You, a keeper of laws are aware of this,' she said.

Paeris blinked. 'There is no law... not for humans.'

'All are equal in His eyes before this court,' said the Visier. Whether it was the Visier's words or Theodan's force, Paeris coughed his response a moment later.

'I shall beg His forgiveness, Visier.'

She nodded, satisfied. 'Son of Ishilde, you will release Paeris of Mennir at once.'

Theodan snarled at Paeris. 'Visier, I would have recompense.'

'You will release him. I will not ask you again.' There was no change to the calm measure of the Visier's voice, and yet the threat was clear. She did not ask this of him; she commanded it.

When it was clear he would not comply, the Visier lifted her hand and with a slight flick of her wrist motioned the heavily armoured guards into action. They moved as one, taking a single thundering step towards Theodan.

'Theodan, please,' Vala begged. She stood a short distance behind him, her eyes wide and afraid as she looked between him and the approaching guard. When the guard took another step closer she shot a desperate look to her brother, who stood at the highest point of the chamber watching dispassionately. He showed no visible emotion at the look in his sister's eyes. The other members of the Leoth council looked part alarmed, part excited at the spectacle.

Every moment that passed in which Theodan defied the Visier, the air within the chamber thickened. Portentous and oppressive. He would really disobey her so publicly? Here, now, when his fate already hung so precariously? It was foolish. Did he not see that?

She looked back at Vala, wretched with hopelessness as the male she loved condemned himself further each moment for the honour of another, for her. She looked at Theodan, who for reasons she could not understand would condemn himself, for her. She thought of Arielle who had done the same. She thought of Galyn who had taken his realm to war for a love that he did not know was without foundation.  She looked at the Visier, who even though imbued with the greatest of powers was still a mere messenger for the Gods. 

Finally, she thought of Valdr. Valdr who had first taught her what power could do. What weakness would allow. What it was to be both weak and powerless in the face of those who were stronger.

She could not afford to be weak now. She could not afford to cower while others continued to fall for her wrongs. I would know how many more you intend to watch suffer in your name.

Before another thought moved through her head, Fara stepped forward.

'I request permission to speak to the council,' she said. Her voice frightened her. It carried boldly - regally even - across the chamber. Theodan turned to her, urgency flooding his dark eyes. She felt many pairs of Leoth eyes settle upon her suddenly, and with them came the final surge of strength she needed.

A small knowing smile passed over the Visier's mouth as she turned her head to meet Fara's gaze.

'You may speak, child.'

Theodan shook his head, warning her, a desperation in his eyes now that would have frightened her once. Behind him, she saw the council begin to move to take their seats one more, stealing curious glances at each other as they did so.

'Cassine, do not do this,' he said as he let go of Paeris and charged toward her.

Oh, he did not know the error he made. To call her that name, now, here. Fara's mind filled with images of Cassi. Her beautiful, beloved Cassi. A soul shining bright with strength and bravery. Cassi who had faced death again and again and smiled upon it each time with only kindness and grace.

Tears filled her eyes. Fara cleared her throat.

'Your commander is not guilty of the crime to which he has confessed here,' she began. 'Of this I assure you.'

As Theodan reached her, he grabbed hold of her hand and turned her to face him. 'Do not do this,' he commanded again. His eyes were once more the shimmering night sky she had not thought to see again, and from their depths came a passion that almost stole her breath. It took a great deal of her gathered strength to pull away from them.

'It is in my name that Calate threatens war on your people,' she continued. 'Just as it was my name wielded as cause for the war left behind on Azura.'

'Tell us child how this can be so?' The Visier's voice was filled with curiosity, belying completely what she already knew to be true.

'Because my name is Fara Ninerveh of Zaharina, princess of Calate and Azura. Because I wedded Prince Galyn though I knew him to be promised to another. And because it is my false death which now brings my brother's army to your shores.'

Theodan let out a breath of resignation while the court sat in stunned silence for many long moments.

'Come forth Princess Fara of Calate and Azura, we have much to confer,' said the Visier finally.

Fara did not move, not immediately. Instead, she chanced a look at Theodan; surprised to find his eyes oddly warm.

'Must you always defy me?' he asked her, quietly.

'It appears so.'

'You have made it harder for me to protect you now, you know this?' He glanced uneasily at the guard, who stood silent and ready for further command, at the council, who watched them through suspicious eyes.

'Then I release you from the obligation,' Fara said. 'I shall meet my fate alone.'

His eyes flashed with anger. 'As long as you still breathe upon this mortal realm, Fara of Calate and Azura, you shall never be alone. All that you are is now mine to protect; the Gods have decreed it so.'

Her blood grew cold suddenly. And with it came the chilling realisation that this promise was not like any which he had made her before.  She knew then that had seen something of what was to come, of that which awaited her. Some future which again may or may not come to pass.  Did she wish to know of it? Had not Galyn's other death been gift enough? She had no time now to think on it.

'Then do as you must, Theodan of Teredia,' said Fara quietly. 'But you will do so as my equal; not as my captor or my master.'

A wry smile tugged at the side of his full mouth. 'As you wish, princess.'

She tried to ignore the memory of his mouth as it had commanded hers. 'Then you may yet earn my gratitude.'

She took a deep breath and walked forward to face the court of the Leothine. This time she would meet her fate in truth, not deceit. This time she would not run from who she was or what she had done.