"Block," Morrigan snarls as she swings her sword in a quick motion that would've taken Nalani's head off. If that was her intention. But of course she won't.

Scowling in return Nalani just about manages to get her sword there to meet Morrigan's and the deafening ring of steel clashing rings across Shannon's Blackway. The usual meeting place for her combat training.

Why Vivianne decided it is necessary for Nalani to have weapons training is something she will never understand. She has affinities for every elemental gift, except from ice.
She is not a war gifted queen. Why learn to use a weapon when her gifts make her a weapon?

"Your reactions are too slow," Morrigan states, her green eyes narrowing, "you better hope your little elemental tricks don't falter when you face Carina and Arwen otherwise the island will have to stomach the start of another poisoner dynasty or the beginning of a shadow one which is even worse."

Panting Nalani drops her sword to the side, her arm crying in relief at not having to lug around the heavy silver thing any longer.

Sending a cold look at Morrigan she uses her gift to send a bolt of lightning right next to the warrior who doesn't even flinch and just raises a red eyebrow with distain.

"I thought we'd grown out of your little lightning tantrums," Morrigan states, stabbing her sword into the ground in a quick motion as she walks towards Nalani.

"And I thought we'd grown out of you being a insufferable bitch but here we are," Nalanj retorts, sitting down in the grass which makes Morrigan smirk.

"Touché," she replies, coming to sit down in the grass next to Nalani who doesn't even look at her.

The elemental queen is too deep in thought. That all revolve around the prophecy. That damned prophecy. The threat of it haunts her at every moment.

And she hasn't told a soul about it and has no idea what to even think about it. The only thing that's certain is she must seek out Hecate Murtra, the midwife, before it's too late. But how to slip away without detection? How can she leave when the most important and dangerous year of her life has begun.

"What's wrong Nalani?" Morrigan asks, using her full name for once. The warrior sounds faintly concerned. How out of character that is.

"Everything," Nalani replies, her voice void of any emotion.

Morrigan rolls her eyes at that, "oh come on what's wrong with you?"

"None of your damned business," Nalani snarls in reply, no longer in the mood for Morrigan's attitude. Normally she likes bantering with the warrior. But today she's in an especially bad mood.

First of all Morrigan has been kicking her arse all afternoon. Nalani's not even sure she's made any progress at swordplay at all. And not sure she even wants to after facing Morrigan's ferocity.

"Someone's in a shit mood," Morrigan comments, throwing her small dagger up into the ear and catching it with the same hand, her favourite habit Nalani has observed. Even if the blade nicks her palms Morrigan barely even registers it or sometimes even smiles. War gifted are strange like that. They almost enjoy pain in a strange twisted way.

War gifted like to say pain is necessary. It is the nature of war. And you must take pain into yourself, allowing it to fuel you to better yourself as a person and a warrior.

Now Nalani can't say she particularly enjoys pain but she cannot deny that the notion of being war gifted has always intrigued her slightly. Perhaps that is because her predecessor was war gifted. Queen Halia. And if Nalani wasn't a queen then the last queen crowned would be considered her mother, perhaps people would say she inherited her ferocity from her mother. Along with her black hair and eyes. But she's queen. As are all her ancestors. And they do not inherit traits from each other. Only the classic features of those with queensblood. No hint of colour to be found.

"You know you might want to sort out your attitude before you ascend otherwise you might lose the people's popularity," Morrigan comments, trying to rile the queen again, "but even though you may be a nasty piece of work but I don't think you'll make the worst queen crowned," she says with a shrug which makes Nalani smile faintly.

"Careful I think you must complimented me," Nalani says with amusement.

"Oh shit you're right, the world must be ending," Morrigan replies which makes Nalani's smile drop.

"Don't even joke about that," she says sharply which catches Morrigan's attentions.

"Why not?" She asks, "unless you're planning on causing the island's doom as we speak?"

Morrigan means that as a joke but Nalani does not smile, her face stony and contemplating.

"Not me, but something is out there," she says ominously, staring into space.

"You sound awfully superstitious, I thought you were an elemental queen not an oracle one," Morrigan says with a smile and Nalani shrugs at that.

"If I was an oracle queen Hecate would've drowned me," Nalani says, chuckling and the name instantly stirs Morrigan's emotions slightly.

"Hecate," she repeats slowly, her voice tainted with a hint of sadness, "my family hasn't seen her in years."

"Aunt?" Nalani says, her head snapping towards Morrigan's.

But she doesn't know why she even said that. Hecate Murtra. Nalani is aware that she is Pele's younger sister. But for some reason she never connected Morrigan and Hecate's connection even though it is pretyy self explanatory.

"Don't tell me you never knew that," Morrigan twisting her small knife across her fingers, "I know my aunt is an oracle and not war gifted but did the surname Murtra not ring a few bells in your daft little head?"

Ignoring the insult Nalani replies "I know who she is but I just never thought about the fact she's your aunt before."

"Most people forget what family Hecate comes from these days, she's been away for so long and she was never like the rest of us," Morrigan says with a strange air of solemnity about her, "I can understand why she felt alone, an oracle born into the most powerful war gifted family on the island."

Nalani frowns, "that's awfully rare, gifts usually run in families, I wonder where the gift came from and from what I remember as a child her sight gift was a strong one but she isn't a Lermont."

The Lermonts. The most powerful oracles on the island. Who barely have any gift to cling too after the years of drowned oracle queens. None of them getting the chance to ascend to Queen Crowned and restore the oracle gift's very life flow. It is unfair. That they will never prosper like they once used to. Because of one mad queen.

Morrigan shrugs in reply, "it's just an anomaly though we never loved my aunt Hecate any less because of it and at least she found refuge in the temple where gifts do not matter and are disregarded."

"I wouldn't exactly call it refuge as she answers to that bitch of a High Prietess," Nalani comments which makes Morrigan chuckle.

Neither of them like High Priestess Corra. And that's opinion is shared by many. She is certainly not High Priestess of the island for her popularity. There are rumours that she killed the last High Priestess in the dead of night, having coveted her predecessor's position for years.

"True," Morrigan says, inclining her head, "but priestesses are not there to be liked and Hecate always found solace in the temple and the Goddess."

Nalani sits, deep in thought for a moment as she contemplates in nature's embrace, the winds gently caressing her skin and the grass even tickling her ankles slightly. Normally she opts for dresses but not today. Trousers are more comfortable and practical for weapons training. Though she's incredibly hot as they are going into summer and she's still forced to wear queens blacks.

"Speaking of Hecate," Nalani begins, an idea forming in her mind, "there's something I need to share with someone, and I know we aren't the closest of friends or companions but as she's your aunt you may be able to help."

Morrigan just stares at her intently, "tell me."

"There's something I need her help with, something important," Nalani says and Morrigan's eyebrows raise in rare surprise.

"What is it?"

"A prophecy," Nalani says, "at Beltane something happened during my performance, in the fire dome, everyone thought that I created it purposefully but it wasn't me it was them, the dead queens of old."

Morrigan just stares at her, lost for words for once and Nalani continues,

"Elo, Shannon, Mirabella Mistbane and the Blue Queen, Illian," Nalani tells her.

"Mirabella Mistbane?" Morrigan says in shock. The others are queen crowneds' of old. But Mirabella Mistbane was more recent then that, apart of the cursed cycle. She saved the island from the once protective mist that turned on its own home. Sacrificed herself. But she is remembered and glorified. There is no portrait of her in the queens gallery as she never ruled but there are ballads sung by bards about her, the temple have written and preached about her: apparently there are even poems about her hair.

And she only lived two generations ago. The sister of Queen Arsinoe the Whjte Handed and Katharine the Undead, who was also formerly a queen crowned having the shortest reign in Fennbirn's existence. Except Katharine's end didn't come from the Goddess sending her triplets for the next cycle as all the Queen Crowned's reigns' before her ended. No. Hers ended after the Queens War. With her own corruption, dead queens that tainted her irreversibly. A poisoner queen with no gifts except those of death.

That is how Morrigan somewhat believes Nalani's story. Years ago if people spoke of dead queens and prophecies the islanders would've called them mad. With the oracles strength diminished no great prophecies have been uttered for centuries and dead queens didn't rise from the Breccia Domain to cause havoc. But ever since the cursed cycle. Things have changed.

Perhaps the dead don't always stay dead.

Nalani doesn't respond to Morrigan's question, though it was rhetorical anyway, borne of her own surprise and shock at Nalani's story.

"Practically every powerful elemental queen in the island's history was there, they all kept warning me about darkness and destruction, whatever that means," she mutters, still faintly annoyed about all the spirits' vagueness. Nalani thought that only oracles are supposed to speak in riddles. Why must the dead do it too?

She bites her tongue when thinking of Mirabella's words against the Goddess. It feels wrong to discuss it with someone who is not a queen.

"But Mirabella was different, she was the only one who properly acknowledged and spoke to me, she told me of a prophecy involving the doom of the island, apparently Queen Bethel and Elsabet, some of the old oracle queens of old, had foreseen it," Nalani says, thinking about everything else Mirabella told her. Not just about the prophecy. But about the Blue Queen, the fourth born.

But the elemental is not sure she wants to tell Morrigan that. Not yet. She will not tell anyone until she herself finds out who it is. Her youngest sister could be anywhere. Have any gift. She may even be an elemental with power to rival Nalani's own. Which makes her nervous.

An unknown rival, another competitor for the crown. And if the island learns the truth then Nalani's not sure her popularity with the people could save her. The people have grown more pious over the past decades, slowly growing closer to the Goddess and the old beliefs again. After Queen Arsinoe's Ascension the temple convinced many to restore their faith in the triplet's cycle.

Queen Halia's birth heightened this, there hadn't been a war gifted queen born for centuries. It gave the people faith. That the island's former prosperity would rise again and that every gift would get a chance to be born into the cycle again. And Arwen's birth and gift confirmed those beliefs.

Nalani has the people's favour now but if High Priestess Corra, especially, learned of the Blue Queen then the temple will have her head. Along with Arwen's and Carina's. Whoever this Blue Queen is everyone who believes in the Goddess' will and the sacredness of a fourth born will put the girl on the throne, regardless of her will, regardless of the fact whoever this fourth queen is will not have grown up learning the skills needed to be Queen Crowned.

But the naive idiots of the island. Those pious fools will take the fourth born as a sign of good will. Luck from the Goddess. Even more will likely turn to the temple after the revelation. Nalani, Arwen and Carina's names will eventually be nothing but dust in the wind.

One thing Nalani is sure of is that she cannot let that happen. The elemental queen will not allow the temple to slay her just so some mystery queen can take the throne without so much as a splash of blood on her hands.

Whoever she is. Nalani doesn't care. She will find her and kill her. The notion of cutting down any threat like a weed has kept her alive and in the game so far, even with assassins after her and it will keep her alive to win this Ascension.

She is what is best for the island. Not Carina with her poisons and deceit. Not Arwen with her darkness and shadows. No.

"Are you sure the dead queens are to be trusted, I know they are your predecessors but they are not your family, they have been gone for eons, why do they even care about the island's welfare, what difference to them does it make if the island's doom comes to pass?" Morrigan asks and Nalani contemplates it.

The warrior makes valid points. As she always does. That's her most annoying trait. But it's also why Nalani enjoys being around her. To have someone dare to challenge her. To have an equal, in same regard, who does not fear her. Fire and blood. Two sides of the same coin. That is what they are.

"I understand that is a possibility but she also spoke of a possible threat to my reign," Nalani says, glossing over the fact that this threat is the fourth born, but I need to seek out Hecate to find out more about this prophecy, Mirabella said Hecate knows about it and that I could somehow stop this great terror from coming to pass."

Well. Mirabella said that both Nalani and this fourth born will stop the darkness together after she seeks her out. But Mirabella also said that afterwards there will be a sacrifice. And Nalani is guessing this sacrifice entails either her or this Blue Queen dying.

Half truths. Nalani does not like withholding the truth from Morrigan but something tells her to hold her tongue about the Blue Queen and all the explicit details. Those details are a matter of securing her life and her future reign. The two most important things for her. All she has ever known.

And the elementals are so hungry for a queen of their gift to sit on the island's throne again. They are desperate. Ever since they lost Mirabella Mistbane all these years ago, she was rumoured to be the most powerful elemental queen for centuries, controlling every element to an extent.

Yet she didn't become Queen Crowned and the elementals lost their chance to increase their own power. To rival the poisoners who are still strong from the time of their queens' dynasty. So many poisoner queens who sat on the throne one after the other. Until Queen Halia's rule began.

"So you're planning to sneak off at the start of the Ascension Year to the Black Cottage to see your old midwife and my aunt while your sisters are planning to murder you as we speak," Morrigan says, having the audacity to smirk slightly as she locks eyes with Nalani.

Nalani nods, "I am indeed, would you care to accompany me?"

That actually makes Morrigan laugh,
"You want my help?" She asks incredulously.

"No," Nalani retorts which makes Morrigan raise an eyebrow.

"So you want my company," she asks.

Nalani inclines her head ever so slightly throwing her hands up in exasperation,
"So are you in or not?"

"I'm in."