" . . . Thank you," Ardasa said, between breaths. She was shaken, shaken in a way she had not been in a long time. The images, they were still too clear in her head. What did it all mean? Her children . . . are they destined to fight each other, to be poisoned by fate and their own efforts, to lose the empire once again to vengeful dracon hands? "I'm scared, Kali," Ardasa admitted, after a period of silence. "Scen might not be able to protect my children from the hands of war. What if . . . what if one of them is killed? Or both of them? What am I to do as a mother?" Their haunting faces, so many expressions locked within, all bursting out before her like the colors of the sky after a rain. That, she is sure will haunt her for the rest of her life. So too would the harsh faces of the stone legionnaires, and worst of all those eyes. Eyes without a body. Eyes full of malice, hatred brought upon not just her, but all things good and living. "Please . . . I need to be left alone. Just for a bit."