[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/gD9rVru.png[/img][/center]
[color=AC5FFB]Time:[/color]Evening
[color=AC5FFB]Location:[/color] Outskirts in the trees not far from Roshmi Hall
[color=AC5FFB]Interactions:[/color][@Tae][@FunnyGuy][@Helo][@baraquiel][@13org][@Eviledd1984][@Dezuel][@dreamingflowers][@Alivefalling][@Potter][@hide on mana]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/1Z62x3Z.png[/img][/center]

High in the trees and completely out of sight, the pink-haired fairy stood on the thick branch of a willow tree, facing a black sphere orb that was a bit above her and centered in regards to her position. It lit up her face in the darkness of the night as the crickets chirped around her as a translucent hologram of a mirror image of herself digitized in front of the orb. She swallowed hard as she stared into her own eyes and at the background of foliage behind her, her hands trembling despite their grip of her skirt. They were not too far at all out from the Roshmi Hall, but Kyran and Risa were enough into the outskirts to not get noticed. The same projection that stared back at Risa was also projected on the large windows translucently, stretching across the entire wall for all of the ball to see. The music would slow as confusion over the crowd of attendees, hushed whispers as everyone recognized the well-dressed fairy from earlier.

Hours and hours the previous day she had spent trying to write down the words to say at this moment, but it had seemed ingenuine. She had never really given a speech before despite who she was. Risa had decided there was no right way to plan it.  [color=AC5FFB]“I am Risa Millinia. I am…”[/color]Risa began, drawing off nervously. 

She could tell them how she was technically a princess, tell them how great her family was, and how educated she was growing up. That would perhaps be the better tactic in order to convince them she was worthy of being followed. She thought of Cadence and how he had treated her as an esteemed individual. It could be that just being a royal descendant was enough in a world where many still longed for the old ruling system. Her mother and father would have told her it was all in her blood if they were here at this moment.

Flashes of Dionaea’s home and her dead family members flashed through her mind, as well as Dionaea’s sickened, pale face. Memories of Jean Luc even surfaced. She sighed, fighting the urge to avert her eyes as she looked directly into the orb. [color=AC5FFB]“I am the reason the crops are dying here in Roshmi. The dark elves are after me for the fact that I had a hand in bringing you humans here... I-I don’t think I could ever say how truly sorry I am for that hand." [/color]Risa felt her voice choke up with guilt but kept a sturdy tone, [color=AC5FFB]“Humans, this is my promise to you. I will do whatever it is in my power to get you home and safe. This is not a war you asked for. Anyone else with bloodied palms should also treat them with this respect. Putting another race in danger in chasing our hope makes us as evil as the dark elves. Force no one against their will. Choose better. “ [/color]

She had an urge to kick herself after that last sentence. Was she really going to call out the dark elves here and now? Though her heart began to race, something in her gut told her to keep going. She had not shook hands with this darker part of herself in many years. Risa was never one to call others out as evil or place judgments. 

The truth was she was no hero nor was she fit to be a queen. That had been her brother. He would have been much more suited for this role and would have been someone worth fighting for. She could not bring herself to instill as much hope as she might have been able to before all this. Risa was a girl as lost as any of the humans. She did not know what else to do other than to be honest and hope they’d see something in that.

Nonetheless, there was a fire in her that could not be doused and she could not stop herself from continuing, her emotions leaking into her voice,[color=AC5FFB] “Dark elves, I call you evil for good reason. You have become the very evil that you encountered long ago when you were outcast. You spread pain and terror, and though not many have stood up to you and lived to tell the tale, all of Avalia knows of your evil! If you stopped blindly falling the biddings of a mad lich, you would realize you have become nothing more than his slaves. You’ve taken my brother, my first love, my home, and I know I’m not the only one! I know deep down you all know that none of us have deserved the pain you’ve inflicted. “[/color]


[color=AC5FFB]“Think about a different world where the past was no longer fueling our future.  We could make a new future where you all do not have to be outcast into the freezing north ever again. You could live alongside everyone else.  I know my people are not the ones who put you in your grief but I am willing to admit my ancestors sure did not stand for you. I’m sure many of us would be willing to change that and stand for you if you stand with us. We could have a world where we have leaders who represent our species again and not led by those who cannot understand our cultures and way of life.”[/color] Risa thought of the dark elf she had encountered. She was sure he was the one who had set Roshmi after her and was pulling a lot of strings even now. What was he thinking of her words now?  

[color=AC5FFB] “But if you stand against Avalia, we will stand against you. “[/color] Risa was not even sure how many would even stand with her, but for this to work, she had to believe it would. [color=AC5FFB]“ I implore anyone and everyone to fight with us. There are humans who are willing to fight for us and many more Avalians who have had enough. There are more of us than there are of them and if it takes a war to have a world we’re proud to introduce children in, then I say so be it. I came in this dress tonight to let you all know I’m not afraid. You will not threaten me into hiding and I will proudly show who I am and what I represent. My grandparents spread kindness and hope through the River Kingdom. If they are my heritage, nothing you say will make me ever hide who I am.” [/color]

The mirror image of the impassioned, teary-eyed fairy that stared back at her suddenly switched off. A new image switched on. It was at first hard to make out the image but it was clear a silhouette hung from a tree branch in a similar setting as to Risa’s background. Blonde locks of hair stained with red trickled down from a bent down head and torn fairy wings drooped with gravity Vines kept the body up and swinging gently with the breeze in an almost eerily serene way. Light began to better showcase the view both to Risa and the crowd at Roshmi Hall as Dionaea Sycamore’s hanging body was displayed for all to see. The display got worse with more attention to detail with vines crawling up her legs lacerating the skin where they had moved and gruesomely protruded through her flesh in multiple areas of her torso. Her face was the worst of all with the barbed vines piercing through where her eyes used to lie, wrapping around the skull creating a crown of thorns and causing blood to pour through the sockets down her face and from her mouth, a mass of tendril-like vines flowed out bearing Clematis blooms. A deep red ichor of blood-drenched the fairy’s once white attire. It was a work of madness displaying the lifeless corpse.

Risa screamed as she threw the orb and then unbuckled.