The sounds of fighting had them all running from the room and as the door was opened, they saw a guard going flying. As one, they turned to see what had done it. It was a centaur and his large grey eyes had found them. He heaved a spear and the four dove back inside as the spear hit the door and stuck there, quivering.
Shoving herself to her feet, she found his eyes on her and they were triumphant.
"Found you," he said as he came into the room.
Etani backed away, leading him with the three vampires moving to circle him.
"And now what?" she demanded and he grinned.
"I'm not usually into your kind but I'm sure we can enjoy some privacy before I take you back."
The thought repulsed her and she glared at him as he laughed, his taunting a joke for him.
At least it was a joke until his own spear burst out of his chest and sprayed her with blood. Tilting herself slightly, she saw Versalis standing at the door with a savage grin.
"My dear Etani, it seems your family has come to call."
She looked past him as the hall moved with creatures and she realised exactly what was happening.
The Winter Court had come to Ayathian in search of her.
"You'd think they would have gotten the hint by now," she said as she swept back to the door and watched as a huge boar with a tusk growing out of its forehead in addition to the other two went barrelling down the hall. A handkerchief appeared beside her head and she accepted it, using the white fabric to brush away the spattering of blood from her face and neck.
Rushing out into the hall, they watched as the boar knocked over three guards before charging off again. They took advantage of the cleared hall to try and find others they knew.
Rushing through the halls, they found all kinds of creatures, from a troll to a tiny winged fairy who threw insults and then flew off to get backup.
"Worse mouth than you," Versalis quipped at her but she ignored him.
They rushed down into the throne room to find a very angry looking Alaric and Epharis, with queen Tatialia sitting on Alaric's throne, a wide grin on her smooth, ancient face.
"Etania!" she cried as her eyes found her granddaughter.
Etani glared up at the woman before looking to Alaric. He had been stuffed into a cage that hung three feet off the ground. Epharis had been put in a full binding of silk and was sitting moodily on the top step of the dais.
Two young women were standing to the right and left of the queen.
The right had long blonde hair that seemed impossibly straight, a large headdress covered in pearls and sapphires. She was gorgeous with dark purple lips and deep blue eyes, dark brows, and pale creamy skin.
Her dress was large, covered her from neck to toes and was covered in more pearls and sapphires.
The woman on the left was almost impossibly pale with white hair and equally white skin. She was dressed in white as well, offset with dark red beading and embroidery in the pattern of runes.
Her dress had large openings to show off slits of her breasts, arms and ribs but she was otherwise dressed fully.
A string of black pearls hung around her neck, but otherwise she was undecorated with jewels.
"My daughters, Megara and Hercia," pointing to the right and left respectively. That was unexpected. She hadn't known she had any other close relatives.
"What are you doing here, Tatialia?" she demanded.
The woman looked angry at the casual use of her name.
"Does it to me too," Alaric said and the queen spun his cage.
"You will treat me with the respect I deserve, Etania. I am your grandmother!" The woman seemed exceptionally angry, while Etani shrugged.
"I have yet to see you earn it. You trussed up a mortal king and a lich." She spoke like that was no feat, knowing full well it would rile the old woman up.
"How dare you speak to me like that?" she screamed, stepping down from the dais and when Versalis moved, her hand flicked in his direction, the man thrown across the room. "Vampire scum," she snarled as she approached her granddaughter.
Jaia and Kai had backed away quickly and she glanced up to see Uzo calmly walking into the room from behind the throne, tugging at his sleeves and looking around with interest.
Her eyes returned to the ancient woman before her and smiled slightly.
"I'll not lie for you," she purred, the fact that she could lie angering the queen even more.
Tatialia clenched her fist and pain ripped through her body, forcing her to her knees as she gasped to try and suck air into lungs that no longer seemed to work.
"You will respect me, little girl."
"How can… I respect a woman who… sells her grandchildren to monsters?" she gasped, finally able to suck in air as the queen released her fist.
"The drow? I assumed you would have kill him by now," Tatialia said.
"You knew what he was," she wheezed. "You knew what he was and what he did, and you still gave me to him."
She looked up at the grandmother she didn't know she had, and the woman was staring down her nose at the granddaughter she had never wanted.
"You are weak, allowing a pathetic male to abuse you. You deserve to have that done to you if you cannot defend yourself."
The room had gone absolutely silent as everyone processed what she had said, the brutality of it and her lack of compassion for her fellow woman.
Her eyes lifted slowly from the floor to peer up at the queen, fury filling her and she found her wrist itching, Versalis' chest beginning to glow with a rapid pace.
"I am your granddaughter, the child of your son and you let him…" she couldn't even say what he had done to her, not to this woman. Her wrist had begun to burn and she sucked in a breath.
The vampires immediately moved to cover their ears but she wasn't going to scream.
Instead, her hand flung out and the marking moved, liquid and flowing up to her hand and the scythe formed between her fingers.
The queen backed away at the thing even as she stood and advanced, gripping it tightly.
"You knew he was going to do it. Did you enjoy knowing your blood was screaming in agony while she was defiled over and over? Did you watch?" The words were crude and the woman's cheeks had turned bright red in horror, but still she backed away. "Did you enjoy knowing he was going to do it again and again? Knowing he gained pleasure from the suffering of others?" Etani had lifted the scythe now, a threat that hovered over the woman. "Do it. Try and control me, try and hand me over to the next beast. Do it!" she screamed and the woman flinched, falling back onto the dais.
Neither of the two princesses had moved, watching with calm poise. "Perhaps it is you who is weak, Tatialia. You who have grown tired and frail with age and so you punish the young. You who are just as cruel and malicious,"
Movement from the corner of her eye told her Uzo had stepped up behind her but he didn't try and stop her, instead he was grinning at Tatialia over her shoulder.
"Traitor…" the queen breathed at him and then the scythe came down and the hall echoed with the sound of metal hitting flesh and then stone.
The scream of the queen was loud, painful and she smiled as she gripped the scythe tighter, feeling those tendrils reaching out through it for the woman.
Black seeped into her eyes and she sucked in a breath as the woman's soul was ripped from her body and up through the scythe into Etani's fingers.
Her body blazed with the glowing white of the markings, her body radiating and Megara moved, stepping down from the dais to kneel at her mother's side.
She knew nothing after that, her world lost to a blazing whiteness that was utter ecstasy of the kill.