A/N: heyyy if u read this chapter before I unpublished it, just note I added a little bit more to the end of the chapter. Happy reading :)

"Do you need any more tea?" Hecate enquires politely, eager to take care of them both and pleased with the company despite the dire circumstances.

Nalani smiles, nodding as she watches Hecate pour more tea into her cup, a special blend of hers which has nightshade in it apparently. The scared shadow flowers. That only grow around the Black Cottage, the Breccia Domain and Umbra.

It is surprisingly good but does nothing to distract her from all the questions going on in her mind. She is not an anxious person by nature but today she almost feels sick to her stomach with all the potential threats that surround her like a sea of sharks.

The mystery of the Blue Queen. The dead queens and their warnings of 'darkness' and Mirabella's warning of the Goddess manipulating her. When has the Goddess not manipulated everyone and berthing on this land? Alive or dead oracles never seemed to be able to say what their intentions actually were. They spoke in riddles and fables, never making their meaning obvious. And non oracle ghosts seem to be just as bad.

So a potential threat of the Goddess wrecking unknown havocand of course the Ascension itself. It is lucky that neither Arwen or Carina has yet made an attempt because for someone so ambitious it has been the least of Nalani's concerns of late. But even if spies informed them of her location they would never dare try and storm the Black Cottage.

The queen watches as Hecate goes to Morrigan to offer her more tea but she only declines politely, resting further into her chair, looking unnaturally content. Nalani wonders if she has ever seen Morrigan sit for this long and not start flipping her knives and using them to dent tables. A war gift as strong as hers can never seem to be contained.

"I could bake or cook you both a meal if you wish," Hecate says, moving to Nalani and stroking her cheek fondly her eyes full of motherly love and concern, "you look peaky Nalani have you been eating or sleeping enough lately?"

Nalani shakes her head, "there's more important things going on."

Hecate frowns disapprovingly, "more important than your health? If you still lived here I'd fatten you up in no time, people seem to forget queens are only human, that they need to be taken care of, that they aren't just lambs for the slaughtering."

Nalani only smiles, though it is tainted with a little sadness. It's true. They are lambs. Their lives and purposes dictated to them. That is why she must become a wolf. Prey or hunter. Everyone is either one or the other. That is the way of Fennbirn and the way of the world.

Morrigan laughs, "you don't need to fuss over her Hecate, she has everyone in Rolanth pampering her and kissing her arse constantly, she's being taken care of don't worry."

Nalani rolls her eyes and Hecate smiles in amusement,

"Forgive me Lani, I'm just overjoyed to see you again," she says with sadness, "it seems like just yesterday that you, Rina and Arwen were all here under my care, my little girls," she pauses, sitting down beside them both, "you all deserved so much better."

Nalani can only smile. It is true they do deserve better. But the Goddess has always had other plans.

"And of course I'm happy to see you my darling niece," Hecate says, clasping Morrigan's hand in a loving gesture, "tell me how is my sister faring in charge of the whole island, how's Malakai, no doubt still doting on my sister," she says with a smile, "and your brothers and sisters, tell me how are Achilles, Minerva and Ares?"

"They are all well, mother has ruled Fennbirn well despite Cierra Raduron always trying to undermine the treaty and Pele's rule, my older brother has finally returned from the mainland, he's one of Nalani's personal guards now and Minerva is as stubborn as you would've remembered and Ares is still everyone's favourite," Morrigan says, sounding the most happy Nalani's ever heard her sound.

It makes her feel slightly guilty, Morrigan and Achilles are here helping her. Hecate is stuck at the Black Cottage and raised her for the first six years of her life. The rest are in Bastian City and Pele constantly travels between there and Indrid Down. The Murtras are all separated when they should be together. For that is what family means, except in the case of a queen.

Hecate's eyes sparkle in delight, "I'm glad the family is all alright, when you return tell them I miss them all and give them my love."

"Of course," Morrigan nods with a small smile.

"I must apologise for being so sentimental, I am honoured to be the Queens' Midwife but I will always miss all of you," Hecate says, turning towards Nalani, "but enough of that for I suspect you do not have much time here, you want me to tell you something."

Nalani nods, going straight to the point, "I do."

And so she told Hecate everything. The events at Beltane, of the dead queens, the prophecies and even of the Blue Queen which caused the midwife to look away from Nalani's eyes. Only for a split second. But she noticed none the less. And of their experience at the Breccia Domain. And by the time she is finished Hecate looks unsurprised, keeping her face impassive and indifferent.

"The dead," Hecate muses, forgetting her tea and opening a bottle of wine, "on other lands they stay dead but in Fennbirn, for the queensline they still linger, the slain and the fallen Queen Crowneds' both, drawn back to their birth place."

"I must admit I visit the Breccia Domain from time to time," the Midwife says, "it is there that my visions and senses are at their strongest and where I, like you Nalani, have seen the dead queens."

That shocks the Fire Queen. Hecate must be a strong oracle indeed to have queensblood and still see the dead queens.

"Not all of them," she says, "only the oracle queen crowneds', Queen Lauriel, Bethel the Pious and Queen Elsabet."

"Elsabet the Mad?" Morrigan cuts in, exchanging a look with Nalani.

"Not the Mad," Hecate corrects, "just Elsabet, trust me when I say there is more to her tale than history remembers."

Implying that Elsabet was never mad? That's a bold statement but both Nalani and Morrigan trust Hecate's judgements and the power of her gift. And she is not hear to listen to the twisted tale of a queen crowned who lived centuries ago.

"Alright," Nalani agrees warily, "and did the queens tell you anything of consequence?"

Hecate nods, a little apprehensive, "they gave me warnings, whispered secrets of the island that no one living should ever know, including the secrets of the Goddess and what she intends."

"What she intends?" Nalani cuts in, "I don't quite understand."

Hecate purses her lips grimly, "the dead queens speak to me, but they are held back by something, all I know is that the Goddess intends to rise again."

"Rise again?" Nalani questions, trying to keep her temper at bay. But what does that mean?

"It is no coincidence that a shadow has been born into the cycle, nor a Blue Queen, the Goddess chooses, whose power will fuel her own," Hecate says with a frown, "I know it is confusing, I cannot quite make sense of it myself but the queens murmur that she is not to be trusted."

Not to be trusted? What does the Goddess intend, Nalani thinks furiously.

Hecate only pauses taking a deep breath, "it is better if you hear information through another's words."

"How?" Nalani questions, trying to keep her temper at bay but she does not have time to deal with the oracle nature of indirectness and mystery.

"I feel most strongly tied to Elsabet's spirit," Hecate explains, "in fact I can feel her presence in the room with us right now."

That sends a true shiver down Nalani's spine and makes Morrigan's own face grow slightly ashen. It is that deep rooted fear of the unknown that is always entwined with that of death and those who death welcome into its malignant embrace. Death, spirits and ghosts. All enemies that cannot be fought, killed or incapacitated. For what is dead may never die.

Hecate catches the fear in both Nalani and Morrigan's eyes and only provides an attempt at a reassuring smile, "do not fear her, Elsabet wishes no harm, only to speak through me to tell you the tale of the Goddess herself."

"Alright," Nalani says at last, "I want to hear what she has to say, if it can help us make sense of all these prophecies."

Hecate nods, taking a moment to gather herself as she calls on the innermost part of her sight gift. It is the rarest trait of them all. One that has not been present in the oracle line since the Queens of Old. The ability to act as a conduit, to see visions and prophecies through another's eyes. To be able to contact the dead themselves.

"Queen Nalani," Hecate says in a soft yet austere tone, her voice but not. Her face but not. The most unsettling thing are Hecate's eyes, those Murtra green irises have vanished, instead replaced by queens eyes, obsidian and unforgiving.

Queen Elsabet is now among the living once again.

"Am I speaking to Elsabet?" Nalani questions, the confidence in her usual mannerisms resorting to an unusual tentativeness. Nalani has spoken to Elsabet before, with Morrigan at the Breccia Domain but she was a ghost then, what stands before her is a dead queen crowned made into flesh, bone and sinew again. Reborn.

Elsabet only nods with a tight smile, "when I slew my sisters all those centuries ago using my sight gift, despite my power I never could have foreseen that I'd see another queen in a living body again," she says, observing Nalani with an unsettling stillness and curiosity - as if she has never seen the elemental queen before which puts Nalani on edge. They had spoken to Elsabet only a few hours ago, so why is she staring at Nalani with such a questioning expression?

Elsabet however, doesn't wait for Nalani to reply, only taking a deep breath as though relishing the feeling of air caressing Hecate's lungs, filling her with radiant vitality, "yet here you sit beside me, your elemental gift almost radiating off of you in waves of power, with eyes and hair as black as a raven' wing, strange to see another queen not in my cycle, that I have no reason to harm."

Nalani only smiles grimly, "queens were never born to be friends."

"Indeed they weren't," Elsabet sighs, "we will not be friends Nalani Fireborn, I come her at Hecate's bequest and because despite all the wrongs in endured in my life I have no desire to see this island and its people perish, people you may one day have to lead."

"Will you tell me what you know?"

"I will," Elsabet agrees, "although for you to understand I will need to start with my tale, it has taken centuries for me to discover the secrets of the Goddess, down there in the Breccia Domain, where I was thrown like I was nothing more than a fallen queen; after I bore my triplets, Theodora, Anastasia and Clarisse, my king consort and the island had no more use for me, believing all the lies that Francesca Arron spread despite her and Sonia Beaulin being behind the deaths of three entire houses," she says, her voice laced with this horrible sadness and regret as she looks at Morrigan for the first time, tears blooming in her eyes, "your ancestors were among the dead, before I tell you all I know and leave I wanted you to know that, Rosamund Antere was her name, I will never forget it, and she was the most loyal and fierce friend I ever had, and I wanted at least some among the living to know the truth," she says, wiping her tears, "if it's not too much to ask when you return to Bastian City have a mural for her, and my family, Bess, Catherine Howe and Johnathan Denton, I need someone to remember them and their names."

The name Denton rings a bell in Nalani's mind as she searches for the answer. Finn. Her late lover, the ones the priestesses butchered. His name was Finn Denton, the only one left on the island. Nalani knows the Arrons are evil but it shocks her slightly that their treachery goes back for so many centuries, to depose a queen crowned, to slaughter three houses. They are truly monsters and they always have been.

Morrigan only nods at Elsabet's request, touching a finger to her brow as a sign of respect, "of course Queen Elsabet."

Elsabet inclines her head in thanks, "I wish you well Morrigan Murtra but I will not dwell on my own past for any longer, I will tell you what I came to say, of the Goddess, down there trapped in the Breccia Domain all the spirits of queens have little to do but grow bitter and drown themselves with dreams of vengeance and deceit, the Goddess doesn't let us pass on you see down there she feeds off as all, all the fallen but instead of drowning myself in my sorrows and resentment towards the living I listened and I learnt, using the remnants of my gift to see into the Goddess' own past, to learn all I could about her and the Breccia Domain."

" The Breccia Domain is no sacred place," Elsabet whispers, "it was no coincidence it has been the burial ground of a thousand fallen queens over these years, their blood feeding the island and the Goddess in turn."

The thought of the fallen queens all down there, their broken skeletons piled up, one on top of the other, and strewn carelessly at the bottom of the pit makes Nalani's stomach churn. If she is not careful in her journey to come she will join them, her spirit trapped and unable to find peace forever. She wonders if one day people will be able to see the skeletons, whether the Breccia Domain will ever be full. Whether the queens cycle will stop. But it will never happen. All their deaths will never be enough.

"The Breccia Domain is her cage, this whole island is her prison," Elsabet says, "she has been sleeping, trapped for so many years but now she stirs, as our spirits grow weaker, as each triplet line sacrifices she grows stronger."

"Why is she trapped? If she is a powerful deity?"

"That I do not know," Elsabet says ruefully, "we know bits and pieces, we are part of her and she part of us, we are all her descendants and she feeds off of our bloodline, I do not know how but if she does rise and gain power she will cause the destruction of the island, it is tied to the shadow queen."

Arwen must die? Hasn't she always been destined for it, she is another obstacle in the way to Nalani being Queen Crowned. And if the Goddess means to use the shadow queen as a foothold Nalani will destroy Arwen and send her back to her slumber. And what of the Blue Queen? Whom Elsabet's spirit warned her at the Breccia Domain that she would never be Queen Crowned as long as the fourth born lives. So many trials. So many sisters to kill.

"Only queens fire can destroy her and Arwen both, it is the only way," Elsabet laments, "but it will not be easy, the shadow queen is stronger yes but now more vulnerable to the Goddess' interference, after her lover Klaude Vale has been slain, shadows are susceptible to a certain type of sickness when they are in great pain."

Klaude Vale dead? Not that Nalani mourns him but she grows angry. Are all the queens mere puppets to jump at the Goddess' tune? Are they all simply born to die?

"Why did you tell me at the Breccia Domain that the prophecy about Arwen and Klaude was revoked?" Nalani shouts furiously, "why confuse me with all these contradicting tales? Are you truly Elsabet or another malignant spirit here to torture me?"

Elsabet looks truly confused at that, wearing Hecate's face but Nalani no longer believes her.

"You told me that I would never be Queen Crowned so long as the Blue Queen lives," Nalani murmurs, "and to that I have one more question."

"She has interfered," Elsabet says furiously but Nalani does not give her a chance to speak further.

"Who is the Blue Queen?"