Prince and Princess
Heather scowled at the Ambassador as he was dragged in by the Sergeant. He always hated the slimy man for many reasons, and if he was dragged in that means they had to arrest him. The Sergeant only stayed long enough to salute Heather and Verka before leaving, slapping Nathan on the back and dragging him along as well.
"But-" Nathan tried to protest as Trevor pushed him through the doorway.
"Hoy. It's rusalki business, Nathan." Trevor said, clicking the door closed.
"Indeed it is." Heather said, still seated. "I'll put it simply, so that even you can understand Vamir. Your Rangers fucked up bad. A child nearly died because none of them thought to ask questions."
"Why is any of this my problem?" Vamir groaned, still laying on the floor where the guards left him. "Go talk to the Rangers up north."
"Because I'm taking an army." Verka shouted, grabbing Vamir by the collar. "We should have slain all your misbegotten kind long ago during the first war in the North!"
"Verka-" Heather began to say, but was cut off.
"She's a child, father!" Verka said, turning to shout at Heather. "They nearly killed a child over prejudice!"
"How about..." Vamir started to say, causing Verka to shoot him a withering glare, but he continued anyway. "You tell me exactly what happened. From the start."
"Actually doing your job for once?" Heather asked, raising an eyebrow. "But fine."
Heather explained the situation to Vamir, leaving out the detail of who rescued Mira. But Vamir merely shrugged his shoulders afterwards.
"Seems nobody involved did anything wrong. Assumptions and mistakes were made yes, but did anybody actually do anything wrong?" Vamir asked. "Enough that I needed to be arrested?"
"She nearly died, idiot!" Verka said, slapping Vamir in the face.
"And we might have been all better off for it if she had, hmmm?" Vamir said, rubbing his face. "Think about it. Who would miss one teenager? I know apart from your family, your species isn't exactly big on familial ties."
"Living with them has changed us." Heather said. "But my duty as the Moonfall Prince remains. So few know my most important duty."
"The protection of the race." Verka said, but in rusalki, causing Mira to perk up.
"The protection of the race." Heather repeated, in perfect unaccented Elven.
"What are you planning?" Vamir asked, finally getting to his feet.
"Little old me? Nothing." Heather said, smiling wryly. "What my lovely daughters plan to do about this? Well, ask them. Verka, it's time to get your sisters involved."
"With pleasure. Mira, wait here with my father for a few minutes please." Verka said, before vanishing in a brief flash of purple light.
---
Syndra Valmaris was just finishing getting dressed when she heard a knock at her bedroom door. Tossing on a shirt very quickly, she opened the door to find Ryul, who very quickly looked away blushing. Looking down, she realised she hadn't actually buttoned it up.
"Oh come on Ryul you've seen them a hundred times!" She said, admonishing the Captain for his shyness as she buttoned the shirt. "But what is it?"
"We're getting reports in from the Ashen Empire. It's umm... bad." Ryul said, shuffling the papers in his hands. "Vamir's been imprisoned, the Embassy was burned to the ground, and elves are being expelled from the capital."
"I imagine it gets worse?" Syndra asked with a sigh.
"Of course it does. Come with me." Ryul said, motioning for her to follow.
Following a brief walk through what was now Syndra's own personal garrison, they arrived at the conference room, which was for the moment empty apart from the two of them and a massive pile of papers on top of the central table. Hundreds of reports about troop movements in the Ashen Empire, increasingly hostile encounters with rusalki in the North, and the newest was official correspondence with the Kingdom of Gilnas.
"Seems you kicked up quite the hornet's nest." Ryul said, watching Syndra's face pale as she read the letter from Gilnas.
"I can still fix this!" She shouted.
"Can you? Crown Princess Verka is ready to put your head on a pike." Ryul pointed out.
"That's why I'm going to talk to one of her calmer sisters." Syndra said, tossing the letter she was holding. "From the intelligence we have, Princess Lena would be the best bet."
"How you getting there, Princess? You'll be arrested at best if you show your face in the Empire." Ryul added.
"The old ways still work even down south, Captain." Syndra said, humming as she finished dressing, using a pile of clothing that was stacked in the corner. "Vamir really is an idiot though, isn't he?"
"He'll always be a politician." Ryul replied with a wink. "But you aren't seriously planning on going alone, are you?"
"Of course I am. This mess is bad enough already, showing up with Rangers will just make it worse." Syndra said as she finished putting on a coat. "Not even Castle Ashe is immune to my magic, I can sneak in easy enough."
"Don't sneak in, Princess." Ryul said, shaking his head. "Will you promise me that, at least?"
"I won't." Syndra said with a smile, before clicking her tongue and disappearing in a gust of wind.
---
At the lakeside entrance to Castle Ashe, Nathan and Boris were quite intrigued by an elf appearing out of thin air on the patio used by the rusalki when they climbed out of the lake, and moved to intercept immediately.
"Ma'am, this is private property. State your business." Nathan said, approaching cautiously, but not drawing his weapon quite yet.
"Good afternoon guardsman." Syndra said, bowing briefly before continuing. "I'm here to speak to Princess Lena Ashe regarding an escalating diplomatic incident."
"What's your name? Princesses don't just talk to anyone, you know." Nathan answered, regarding Syndra with suspicion.
"Look around you, boy." Syndra said, gesturing at the gathering clouds in the sky. "Don't you feel the chill in the air? Just tell her the Avalanche Princess is here."
"What the hell is going on?" Boris asked as snow started to fall from the sky, but before he could continue that train of thought, shouting could already be heard from the Castle.
"She's here!" A woman's voice could be heard shrieking. "I'll kill her myself!"
"Somebody stop her!" Another woman's voice could be heard yelling.
Syndra wasn't sure what to make of it, but figured as long as she stayed in public Verka would be less likely to kill her, and so stood still in as neutral of a pose as possible. In a few more seconds, she locked eyes with Verka Ashe as she came running down the stairs, and the sheer hatred in her eyes actually quite surprised her.
"You!" Verka shrieked. "You've got a lot of nerve coming here!"
"Verka stop!" Another rusalki shouted, yanking on Verka's arm in a show of force that would outright rip off the arm of any other mortal race. "Killing her will only make this worse!"
"Is that Princess Lena?" Syndra whispered to Nathan as the two rusalki struggled and shouted at each other.
"Lena get out of my way I'll kill you!" Verka screamed, pulling the other's hair and hissing.
"It is." Nathan said with a nod.
"Princess Lena!" Syndra called out, raising her voice. "I'd like to speak to you about all this!"
Both Verka and Lena stopped their shouting match at these words, as they were both surprised by Syndra's request. Lena angrily gestured with her fingers at Verka, followed by a cutting motion across her neck, before quickly approaching Syndra.
"You want to solve this, yes?" Lena whispered.
"I do. I made a mistake and I need to smooth this over before the Crown Princess makes this worse." Syndra whispered back, glancing over at Verka, who was glaring at her with her lifeless fish eyes. "Lots of emotion in those dead eyes of hers."
"I'm taking Syndra inside." Lena said, glaring at Verka.
"Oh we're just letting fucking trash like her inside now?" Verka shouted.
"I'll publish your food habits in the next Royal Gazette if you keep this shit up!" Lena shot back, her voice deadly calm.
"You wouldn't dare." Verka said, hissing and getting closer.
Just as Verka was starting to close the gap between them, Zoya appeared between them in a flash of purple light.
"You're going to have to apologise to General Ivanov later for that." Zoya said, looking at Verka and raising her fists. "I'll be your opponent. Go on, Lena."
"A Castle of treachery!" Verka shouted, as she threw the first punch at Zoya.
"And I thought I had anger problems." Syndra whispered to Lena as Lena gestured at which way to go and they ran off.
"You've really awakened something in her, Princess Valmaris." Lena said with a chuckle. "We might have to send for her wife at this rate."
"Wife?" Syndra asked, but Lena just shook her head and refused to elaborate.